


Fear lurks in the Shadows

by Laoness



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Haxion Brood, Horror, Suspense, Thriller, or just subtle hints between the lines, pre established realtionship, there's no romance i swear, things are created entirely for the plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:34:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 34,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24004426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laoness/pseuds/Laoness
Summary: Shir and Maul have known each other for a little while and enjoyed spending 'quality time' (almost getting killed on missions) before. Now Shir asks for his help again, when she gets assigned a mission by the Empire. It's of the utmost importance apparently. But her client doesn't want to give her more information. Maul finds that highly suspicious, but he comes along anyway. As usual things go wrong and the bounty hunter and Zabrak find themselves in what seems to be their own horror story. Stuck on a star cruiser in the middle of space there is no escape from death. Or so it seems.
Relationships: Darth Maul/Female OC, Darth Maul/OC, Darth Maul/Original Character
Kudos: 16





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I was rather inspired by the latest Clone Wars episodes (Season 7, 11 & 12) to write this. It stars Darth Maul and an OC of mine, Shir Edo. Their relationship is also continued from my other story "What even is emotional attachment?", but you don't have to have read that one to understand this story. This is an independent story. If you want to know more about their relationship however, I suggest you read that fanfic. Anyway, this is my first real take on writing thriller/horror, so enjoy!
> 
> Also, if you enjoy listening to music while reading, I can suggest to listen to this soundtrack for maximum effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlXjP59jZCM&list=PLBKadB95sF47WKNRw29jbXQzsjJolN5Gx

“This is a fine mess you have gotten us into again.” Shir’s voice echoed through the prison cell, in which she and Maul were currently held captive. The Zabrak glared at her and huffed. 

“You were the one that asked me for help. You should’ve calculated your risks better.” Was his only defence, but she ignored him. Maul crossed his arms and sat down on the piece of metal, which came out of the wall and formed some sort of bench or just a surface to sit or lie on. 

It was true; Shir had asked him to accompany her on this mission, since she thought it would be a good idea. Not only was it yet another excuse to have some ‘quality’ time together, but he also was actually a very good partner. Their adventures on Dathomir were prove of that. Shir had examined this job carefully and thought it through, before accepting it, after all it sounded rather dangerous. Smuggling wasn’t her expertise and certainly not from a crime organization like the Haxion Brood. But these days she took whatever job she could find. At least the research she did before they departed came in handy. Now she knew what her opponents looked like and what they were capable off: mostly cyborgs and droids. And she also knew her way around this big star ship they were on. Not that it was much use to them, since they were prisoners at the moment.

According to her information, the asset was aboard this ship in the cargo bay, near the engine rooms. However, before they could even get there, they ran into some complications and were captured – by dumb ‘luck’, as Maul put it. He wasn’t happy about this situation. And now they were stuck in this prison cell without weapons and without the asset. Their ship, which was docked onto the outer shell of the star cruiser, was probably confiscated too by now. Maybe even destroyed.

“Either way, we need to find a way out of here.” Shir said as she walked up and down the cell. “I’m not sure what they’re going to do to us. But I don’t want to find out. I just want to get the asset and collect my money.” 

“What is this asset, that it’s so important to the Empire?” Maul asked as he lifted his head to look at her. He highly disliked doing a job for the Empire, but since it was technically for the government, the rewards were very high. Not that he cared about money, but Shir did. And if the rewards were high, it meant the mission was dangerous, right? Better accompany her in that case. Besides, she only told him who the client was, after they departed. Very clever.

Shir stopped walking and leaned against the wall of their cell. “They weren’t very specific on that, to be honest. It’s a container with some probes of some sort of gas.” She shrugged. “Apparently it’s of ‘vital importance’.” She made the hand gestures when she spoke those words. “But also it’s a military secret, so they wouldn’t tell me.” She sighed and started walking again. 

“Hm.” Maul leaned back and watched her walk up and down. He was surprised Palpatine didn’t send Vader on this hunt, if it was so important. Instead, he asked the bounty hunter’s guild to do his dirty work. Maybe the Empire’s watchdog, Vader, had more pressing matters to attend to. Whatever those may be. It didn’t cross his mind that this mission could’ve been too dangerous or delicate, from a political point of view, for the Empire to handle itself. Instead they relied on disposable bounty hunters.

“The problem is. The client wants me to check in every so often on the status. But without my comm-link, I can’t contact them. If I don’t check in, they’re most likely going to hold me, or us, responsible for failing in retrieving the asset.” Shir now sounded a worried. This job just wasn’t going as planned. 

Maul looked a little concerned as well after hearing this. That indeed sounded as a problem. He had no intentions of running into the force of the Empire and least of all Vader or even worse Palpatine. Not that he would show his face so publicly, so that was an advantage.

“Then we better make sure to get-“ He abruptly stopped mid sentence and stood up. Shir was taken back by his weird behaviour and raised a brow at him. But Maul didn’t say anything. His eyes were scanning the room restlessly, as if he was looking for something. Shir hadn’t seen him in such a state before – at least not that she could remember. He looked like he was deep in thought and not quite mentally present. She could tell from his expression and body language, that something was not quite right. 

“Is… something wrong?” She eventually asked. But before Maul could even respond, the ship made a howling noise and shook heavily, throwing the two off balance. Shir had to lean against the wall to not fall over, as did Maul. The shaking stopped after a few seconds. The lights started flickering and eventually short-circuited. Sparks flew across the room before it was consumed by darkness. Mere seconds passed before the emergency lights turned on. The strips of red light at the bottom of each wall barely gave enough light to navigate their cell. Shir let go of the wall to stand on her two feet properly again. She looked around and her gaze caught Maul’s yellow eyes light up in the dark.

“I assume you didn’t do that…” She just said in a dry voice.

“No.” Maul answered. He needed a moment to process what just happened. While doing so, he turned his around to inspect their cell. “It seems the power is out.” He stated and walked towards the door. “That means…” He placed his hands flat on the door and pushed it towards the side. With a grunt and some Force wielding, the door yielded and slid open – very slowly and with an eerie squeak. “Well...” he said while breathing heavily and looking at her. “This solves one problem.” 

“I don’t like this.” Shir mumbled and walked over to him. “What do you suppose happened?” The two of them carefully stepped into the hallway. The long corridor was empty and engulfed in the dim red light of the emergency illumination strips. One of the lights wasn’t functioning properly and flickered every now and then. To the left they could see the end of the prison block. To the right the corridor continued and was lost itself the vastness of the dark. Somewhere in the distance they could hear a muffled alarm, but other than that it was quiet. 

Maul stared down the hallway and into the darkness. “I have no idea.” Was his answer to Shir’s question. “However… I’ve felt… something strange. I could sense fear … and death.” Suddenly they heard a noise behind them and quickly both of them turned around. Neither of them could see what it was, but it sounded like a metal object falling onto the durasteel floors. The echo faded and it was quiet again. 

“Anyway…” Shir started after she composed herself again. “This is our chance to finish the mission.” Maul turned his head to look at her and nodded. “Right…” Shir cleared her throat, which had become a little dry due to the anticipation. “From what I can recall the asset is in the cargo bay, which is near the engine room.”

“Let us not waste any more time.” Maul said. Shir only agreed and the two of them walked down the corridor. Both of them were on high alert. Especially Maul. The feeling he had from before hadn’t faded yet. Something happened on this ship and it was dangerous enough for his heightened sense to warn him. It wasn’t a presence, at least not a familiar one. No, it was a rather vague feeling of something that would follow and find them. It was best to get off this ship as soon as possible. 

“Where do you think they keep our stuff?” Shir asked Maul, almost in a whisper as they finally reached the end of the corridor and opened the door to leave the cellblock. 

“You are the one, who memorized the layout of this ship. Why are you asking me?” He replied. Shir just rolled her eyes at him, but he had a point. 

“Maybe I can find something in the computers.” She said before heading towards the console in the control room. She started pressing some buttons and browsed through the files. Maybe she could find something else important or interesting? But there was no time for that. She felt the uneasiness grow within her and got the feeling, that something was very wrong on this ship. The entire atmosphere felt terrifying. But she wasn’t leaving without that asset – and her weapons. 

Meanwhile Maul stood watch at the door, even though he could sense that no one was coming towards their position. Still, he didn’t let his guard down and scanned the hallways beyond the blast doors for literally anything all while trying to pinpoint where the strange presence was emanating from. He was so focused on his task that he barely heard Shir talk. 

“Got it.” Shir exclaimed when she eventually found the right file. “They keep the prisoner’s belongings in a storage room not far from here. Tch, they wanted to sell it? Over my dead body.” She scoffed. Her weapons and armour were sacred to her. Maybe that was Zena’s influence. The bounty hutner walked towards the door and when Maul didn’t react, she tucked his sleeve. “Come on.” To be honest, she didn’t like the fact, that he was so distracted. Or at least it seemed that way. She could only guess that he was feeling something through the Force. And that didn’t sound like a good thing. 

The pair advanced through the different hallways and corridors, which were all lit up by the same dim red light as in the cellblock. It really didn’t help the mood nor made it navigating through the maze of a ship easier. But what was even weirder; they didn’t encounter anyone else. It was dead quiet on the ship, except for the muffled alarm somewhere in the back of the ship. It was almost as if everyone fled the spacecraft in a rush. 

Eventually, they found the room where their confiscated weapons were kept. Luckily the door wasn’t locked and they could easily enter. Shir grabbed her blasters and other gadgets and put them in their holsters and pockets. She couldn’t resist the urge to take another blaster with her, that she saw. Nobody was going to miss it, right? Maul grabbed his lightsaber with the use of the Force and hung it on his belt.

“Wait.” Shir said before they wanted to leave the room. Maul hesitated and turned around. 

“What?”

“I want to check something.” Shir got behind the computer and started to press buttons again. Maul walked over to her and leaned over her shoulder.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Don’t you find it suspicious that on our way here, we haven’t encountered anyone else? Where is the crew? And all the droids?” Shir explained while still typing. Maul thought about her words while she was searching through the ship’s log. He hadn’t even noticed nobody was around. Instead, he had been way too focused on that eerie feeling that surrounded the entire ship. It was so strong that he couldn’t ignore it, even if he wanted to. He hated to admit, but it made him feel uneasy. 

“Hm. None of the escape pods have been launched. Nor did another ship dock onto us or something. We came out of hyperspace when the power went out about 15 minutes ago. The engines have stopped as well. The ship is running its emergency protocols.” Shir looked at Maul and he stared right back at her. 

“Can you find out what caused the power to fail?” Maul eventually asked. Shir started typing again.

“It seems there was a major short circuit in the lower decks, near the cargo bay. It forced the ship to get out of hyperspace. That explains the shaking from earlier. But I can’t find anything else.” She explained after searching some more. The fact, that they had to go down there to collect their asset made her feel even more uneasy. She already was on high alert and every noise, how soft it may be, made her flinch. Shir looked over at Maul, who seemed to be lost in thought again. “What is it?”

“Ever since the power went out, I’ve been sensing this strange… presence.” He explained. His eyes were a little restless and constantly moving, as if he was scanning the room for something. It made Shir feel even more on edge. “It suddenly engulfed the entire ship and it is, as if it’s crawling through the corridors to get to us. It almost seems to be the darkness itself.” He continued.

“Great…” Shir said sarcastically. That and remembering what he said earlier, about feeling death, really made their whole situation a lot worse. “Let’s just get what we come for and leave this ship behind us.” Maul agreed and without further ado, they left the room to search for their asset.


	2. Chapter 2

“So the asset is supposed to be in the cargo bay and the cargo bay is located on the lower deck of the ship, right here.” Shir explained to Maul while she pointed at a holomap she pulled from one of the computer files. They stood in front of a little niche in a corridor, with an intercom and a console, from which the map was being projected.

Maul studied the map. How was this ship so big? What did the Haxion Brood need such a big ship for in the first place? It only complicated their mission.

“And how do we get there?” He asked while still studying the map. 

“Through the elevator shaft.” Shir said and pointed at another dot on the map. “And to get there we simply need to follow this hallw-“ She stopped when she heard another noise, coming from said hallway. The two of them looked down the dim lighted corridor to see anything. But there was nothing there. 

By now the alarm had stopped and it was dead quiet on the ship. The flickering lights made it hard to navigate the ship, especially since it was so big and had many different corridors, leading to another deck or sector each. Even with a map, it was hard to find the way and even harder without the proper light. On top of everything, the two of them were convinced that something went terribly wrong on this ship. 

“Did you hear that?” Shir said to Maul, almost whispering. 

“Yes.” Maul nodded. “It sounded like footsteps.” He looked down the corridor and squinted his eyes to try and see anything, but there was nothing. At least he also couldn’t feel anything. However, he wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. “You said we have to go down this way?” The Zabrak pointed into the direction from where the noise came. “We’ll find out what it was in that case.” He simply said and started walking into the pointed direction. Shir followed him, after hesitating. She didn’t like this at all; it seemed very illogical to go into the direction from where she heard ominous noises. But the only way to the cargo bay was through there. 

While walking, Shir felt her heart pound against her chest and she could hear the blood pumping through her ears. Her hand was constantly on the handle of her blaster; ready to shoot at anything that came her way. Every now and then she looked back over her shoulder, since she couldn’t shake the feeling, that something was following them. 

Even Maul felt uneasy and he kept his hand on his lightsaber. In all his years he hadn’t felt something like this before. It was something new and undefined and he didn’t like it. He too, felt his hearts beat faster. He could even hear himself breathe. Every step he took was carefully placed and he kept close to the wall, just in case, as he advanced down the hallway. Eventually he stopped. Shir, who was closely behind him and looking over her shoulder in that moment, bumped into him. 

“What is it?” She asked and turned around.

“You wanted to know what happened to the crew? I think I have answers.” Maul said while going through his knees in front of a lifeless body. Shir’s eyes widened as she saw the scene in front of her. There were two dead bounty droids on the floor, at least what was left of them. Their torsos were ripped open and cables stuck out from it, a few sparks were flying through the surrounding air. Oil was dripping from their joints and the floor was covered in little bits and pieces once belonging to the droids. In between lied a member of the Haxion brood with his face down, also dead by the looks of it. His cybernetic arm was torn apart and the individual pieces were scattered across the floor. The rest of the body was lying in a big puddle of dark red blood, which also covered the floor. The man was still holding onto his blaster, which wasn’t in one piece anymore either. It was a horrific scene, that was for sure.

Maul looked closer and pointed at the metal still attached to the body. “It looks like something took a bite out of it.” He pointed at the obvious bite marks in the sheets of metal. Then he took a closer look at the droids. “They’ve suffered the same fate by the looks of it.” Shir carefully walked around him to squat down across him, inspecting the dead bodies as well. 

“You’re right, they do look like bite marks. These injuries look fresh, this couldn’t have happened too long ago. I’d say about half an hour max. But what creature could possibly have caused this? I never heard about something that takes bites out of droids nor cybernetic limbs.” She asked while still staring at the metal pieces on the floor. 

“It’s a big galaxy, it could be a creature unknown, simply because no one has ever seen or encountered it.” Maul suggested before standing up straight again. “The question is… where is the creature now?” He turned his head to side to stare into the darkness of the corridor, again squinting his eyes.

Shir looked up when he said that. That sounded ominous. Well, this whole place was ominous. While Maul continued walking down the hallway, Shir remained at the scene for another few moments to see if she could find any more clues. But there wasn’t much more she could tell. The Haxion Brood member had probably opened fire to defend himself, judging by the blast marks on the floors and walls. The two droids must’ve done the same, but whatever they were shooting at, got to them first. And did… this.

“I’ve found your elevator.” She heard Maul say from down the hallway. Shir stood up and caught up with him. They were now standing in front of a closed elevator door. The panel on the right was dark. “It won’t work without power.” Maul stated, something that Shir would’ve figured out herself as well. But he felt the need to say it anyway. “I guess we’ll have to climb.” The Zabrak stepped in front of the doors, ignited his lightsaber and cut a hole through it. Then he hung his weapon back on his belt and climbed through the newly created hole into the shaft. 

Shir watched him do his work and wanted to follow him. However, before she could do so, she took one last look over her shoulder into the dark corridor behind her. In the distance she could see the remains of the droids and Brood member. They were lit up for a second by the flicker of the emergency lights, before turning dark again. She had a feeling that there was something else; something lurking in the shadows and for a second she swore, she could hear a noise; something that sounded like chewing. It sent shivers down her spine.

“What are you staring at? Come on!” That was Maul’s voice. Shir shook her head and climbed through the hole into the shaft. Once inside, she stared down into a dark abyss. There were no lights in the shaft and that made it all the more dangerous to climb down. The only bit of illumination came from above. At the top must’ve been a hole that let in some beams of light from the outside – probably from the nearest star.

“How many levels do we have to go down?” Maul, who was next to her, holding onto the wall, now asked. 

“Three.” 

“We better start climbing then.”

Shir just nodded and took a deep breath before she started her descent. She had to look down to see where to place her foot, but also stare in front of her to see where she could hold onto with her hands. Under normal circumstances this was dangerous enough. The shaft was damp and the surfaces could be slippery. But it was even more dangerous in the pitch black. Thus making their descent slow. 

Maul followed her down the shaft and kept a constant eye on her. At least he would be able to catch her if she falls - if he didn’t fall himself first. But he also looked up every now and then; as he too had the feeling something was following and lurking at them from the shadows. Being on constant alert started to drain his energy, but he needed every bit of concentration in order to get down this shaft safely. If it wouldn’t be pitch black, he might’ve just jump down and use the Force to dampen his landing. But now he couldn’t even see where he would be jumping. So that was a definite no. Up was going to be easier. 

The two passed one door and then another. That meant the next door would be their destination. Shir was being utterly careful during her climb. Without any rope to secure herself and without being able to see, she was extremely mindful of where she placed her feet and hands. The concentration together with the physical effort exhausted her and she could feel her heart pounding in her throat while sweat drops slid down her cheeks. The constant body tension made her muscles feel tired. Her fingers were starting to become numb from desperately holding onto the tiny surfaces the shaft provided. Soon, she was afraid, she would lose grip and fall. 

But suddenly she felt a ridge with her foot. Carefully she explored how far it went and how wide it was. It turned out she could place both of her feet onto it and could rest for a moment. She was standing on the top of the door of the lower deck they needed to be in. 

“This is it.” She said while looking up at Maul. Just in that second the door was being opened manually. It made Shir lose her balance and she started to tumble. Desperately she tried to hold onto the wall, but she could feel herself losing grip and tipping backwards. Her feet slipped off the ridge. Feeling the state of free falling for just a split second she thought for sure this was the end.

Luckily, Maul was fast enough to reach out his hand and use the Force to keep her hovering in the air. It did cost him a large amount of concentration, given that he needed to hold himself up and still being pestered by this eerie feeling. It was starting to give him a headache. Shir, still with the fear of falling to her death in her eyes, looked up at Maul and then down as she heard two people talk. 

“This lift’s dead.” One of them said. They stood in the opening of the door, only a few centimetres under Shir’s feet. 

“Great! Power’s out, we have no communication… How else are we supposed to contact the bridge about what happened?” The other said with an annoyed sigh. 

“I don’t know! We’ll have to figure something out. I’d like to get off this ship in one piece.” The first one now replied. Maul listened closely and could feel the fear and unrest within them. It was also not to be overheard in their voices. They sounded desperate all while still trying to be calm. The two figures kept standing there and Maul was getting rather annoyed by this fact. He didn’t know how much longer he could hold onto Shir in these circumstances. Carefully, he pulled her up using the Force so that she was on the same level as him. Shir stretched out her arm and foot to grab a hold of the wall again. She tried to keep her breathing to a minimum to not alert the two Haxion Brood members. Maul looked down and could see some faint shadows casted into the elevator shaft. 

Those two idiots in the doorway were still a problem. Shir, after recovering from her near death experience, now looked down to see the shadows as well. She looked at her companion and gave him a look, which communicated that they needed to get rid off them. Maul rolled his eyes and then reached out his hand. Using the Force, he captured their minds and bent their will to his own. 

“You will go back to check another way to communicate with the bridge.” He whispered. Shir raised her brow at what he was doing. Then she looked down. 

“Come on, let’s find another way to communicate with the bridge.” One of the two said and the other agreed. They left the doorway and Shir relaxed her body and sighed relieved. As did Maul.

“Nice trick.” She said to Maul with a grin, her heart still pounding form the adrenaline. 

“It seems you’d be lost – or in this case dead – without me.” He said back with a confident smirk on his face. Shir could only shake her head and had to hide a smile from him, which was rather hard, given the fact they were right next to each other. 

“Just… get down there.” She said and gestured at the open door. Maul, not even bothering to climb down the last few meters, just used the Force to jump through the open doorway. He looked left and right to see if the coast was clear. There was nothing there, except darkness. It seemed to be even darker down here than on the level they came from. Maybe that was because many of the emergency lights weren’t functioning anymore or only half. 

Shir had managed to climb down as well and now stood next to him. Her pulse had calmed down a little, not nearly as much as she wanted, though. “You think they’ll care if their prisoners have escaped?” She asked the Zabrak. Maul turned around to inspect the door of the elevator.

“I’m pretty sure they have more pressing matters to attend to.” Maul replied and pointed at the doors. Shir turned around and her eyes widened. The edges of the doors were covered in scratches. Not just any scratches, these were deep cuts in the metal, which resembled claw marks. The walls around the doorway were covered in blast markings and she figured the dark dots splattered across it were bloodstains. Further down the walls were some dark and faded handprints. Slowly, she scanned the floor and saw even more dark puddles, even trails of blood leading away from the scene, most likely left by the dead bodies being dragged away. Scattered across the floor were also lots of tiny pieces; metal pieces once belonging to droids or cybernetic limbs. After taking everything in she then looked at Maul, who not only saw the horror in her eyes, but also felt the fear within her. However, he remained silent before turning around and facing the dark corridor. 

“You still want to retrieve that asset?” he asked. 

Shir hesitated with answering. 

“Yes.” She eventually said, followed by a soft gulp. “We have to.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look, I don't know if Sith are even able to do mind tricks, but who cares. It's an iconic Force move.


	3. Chapter 3

The lower deck was a labyrinth of hallways and corridors. On top of everything, the illuminating strips along the walls weren’t functioning properly. Some were flickering, some were completely broken and others were covered in oil and dirt, barely letting any light through. It was still very quiet aboard the ship. So quiet that Maul and Shir could almost hear each other’s pulses. Slowly they advanced down the corridor, hoping that it was the right one. It felt like they’ve been walking for hours but in reality it were just five minutes. 

“How much further is it?” Maul asked without taking his eyes off the darkness that lied in front of them. They ventured deeper and deeper into the maze. Ever since they arrived on the lower deck, the ominous presence or whatever it was, got stronger and stronger. There was no doubt anymore, something was lurking in these hallways. The scene at the elevator doors was highly unsettling for both of them. Maul’s suspicions were right, there was something on this ship. And it wasn’t friendly at all. Whatever it was, it had the ability to tear through metal and didn’t seem all too bothered with people blasting it. While walking, Maul wondered why or how it got onto this ship. And how big was this creature? 

“We need to take a right at the next junction.” Shir answered, also without looking at him. She couldn’t stop herself from turning around, in case someone was following them. But the constant turning around and feeling alarmed made her thoughts hectic and drained her energy. Her breathing fastened as she felt her pulse rise from anticipation. The adrenaline was pumping through her body. Calm had become an emotion unknown to her.

Soon they arrived at the next junction, the only problem was… There was no right. Instead, they stood in front of a big, steel wall, which was definitely not a corridor or a door. A moment of silenced passed before they looked at each other. 

“Are you sure this is the right way?” Maul asked her in a slightly accused tone. 

Shir crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Yes I’m sure. I can’t help that there’s no door or hallway here.” She gestured at the wall. 

“Maybe you’ve read the map wrong!” Maul spat back, seemingly agitated by this error. 

“I haven’t seen you memorizing the map and guiding the way! It’s not like you’re much help right now!” Shir pointed her finger at him while taking a step forward. Maul snarled and wanted to say something back, but another noise interrupted their argument. 

The two of them looked into the left corridor, from where the noise came but it was pitch black. This time Shir was sure she heard a chewing sound. Along with it, something was cracking. Metal? Bones, perhaps? Either way… it was coming closer. Her heart was racing. Her hand went to her blaster. But then the sound was gone. The only thing she could hear was her heart pounding in her ears and her uncontrolled breathing. Her eyes, restless, were fixed on the dark corridor in front of them. 

Maul squinted his eyes while peering into the darkness of the hallway. There was nothing he could see and nothing to hear. He had heard the chewing sound as well. Now he felt his heart beat rise. The sense of fear hung in the air. It was so thick he could almost grasp it with his hand. It might have been his own fear, but he didn’t want to admit that. Still peaking into the blackness in front of them, he put his hand on his lightsaber. He could hear his breathing become heavier. 

Suddenly, they saw three red dots appear in the blackness. They looked liked drops of blood on a black canvas. A bellowing growl followed, something that resembled a wild animal. Shir took a step back and felt the cold wall against her back. Panic started to rise within her. Eyes fixed on the three dots in the distance. She didn’t realize how her hands were shaking.

Maul also stood with his back against the wall. He could hear a howl, but it was rather soft. Then he had to hold his head and gritted his teeth. A high-pitched noise penetrated his mind out of nowhere, sending excruciating pain through his head. He couldn’t focus anymore. Now, holding his head with both hands and being distracted by the pain, he was defenceless. He could still hear the bellowing coming from the darkness in front of him. Only a split second after that, a creature leaped at them from the dark with a load roar. Three red eyes, sharp teeth in its mouth, four legs and what seemed to be a tail was attached to its back. It moved too fast to get a better look.

“Look out!” Shir now unfroze and pushed Maul to the side before jumping out of the creature’s way herself. The beast bumped head first into the metal wall, and Shir was astonished to see a dent in the wall but the creature seemed unharmed. In the darkness and heat of the moment she could only catch a short glimpse at the creature. It had large claws and spikes on its back. Its skin was grey or even black and was… shining? Was it made of metal? She didn’t know and wasn’t eager to find out. Quickly she grabbed her blasters and opened fire. Due to her shaking hands she couldn’t aim properly. Some blasts hit her opponent; others hit the wall. The beast growled, not in pain but in anger. The large spikes on its back stood up straight showing off its sail, which made it seem even bigger now. It spun its tail around to throw Shir back against the wall. She felt a stinging pain through her back as she hit the wall. Then she fell onto the floor and her vision went blurry. She could only see how the creature turned to Maul.

The Zabrak was still lying on the floor, barely keeping it together due to the high-pitched noise echoing through his brain. With every bit of concentration he had left, he grabbed his lightsaber and ignited it right before the creature attacked him. Maul hurled the blade at its face, making the creature whine in pain. However, he was shocked to see that the blade barely made any damage at all! Now, panic started to arise in him as well. The creature recovered quickly from the blow. Slowly it walked towards the Sith, growling and with its three red eyes fixed on him. Maul could see the razor sharp teeth in its mouth and the occasional blood dripping from it. 

He took the opportunity to get back on his feet. His stance was sloppy and unbalanced; thanks to the dizziness the headache was giving him. Before the beast could launch at him again, he pushed it back into the darkness with the help of the Force. However, the creature dug its giant claws into the floors and resisted the push of the Force wielder. The noise of metal clashing against metal filled the dark corridors. Sparks jumped up, caused by the friction. The creature snarled and howled, trying to leap forward, but Maul kept pushing it back. He grunted in frustration, not knowing how much strength he had left.

Suddenly, he saw some blasts directed at the creature’s feet. It made it lose its grip. Maul took the opportunity and with a last shout of exhaustion, he pushed it far back into the dark hallway from wince it came until it was out of sight. He noticed there was a panel for the blast doors – not that they would work, but he managed to close them with some Force wielding. Once the doors were sealed, the noise left his head and he fell onto his knees, holding his head.

Shir, who fired the blasts earlier, was back on her feet and quickly came over to him. “What the hell was that?!” She exclaimed, surprised and in terror. She helped Maul get back up. Her heart was pounding against her chest, as if it would burst out any second.

“I… I don’t know.” Maul panted. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” Both of them flinched as their conversation got interrupted by a loud bang. It came from the blast doors. The creature must be trying to force itself through. Maul could feel how Shir was clenching onto his arm. Both stared at the door without moving.

“It’s trying to get through.” Shir’s voice broke at the last word. Her grip on his arm became tighter. Maul could feel his panic grow while he was trying to formulate a plan. But there wasn’t much else they could do except run. He grabbed her wrist and freed his arm from her grasp. 

“Come on.” He pulled her along and started running down the only corridor they could, without going back where they came from. The banging noise continued and echoed through the hollow ship. Who knew how long those doors could hold the creature back if even a lightsaber did minor damage to its skin! Maul had no idea where they were going, but anywhere was better than staying still. 

Just as he wanted to turn around a corner, he heard someone talk and quickly stopped in his tracks, backing away against the wall and dragging Shir with him. He hadn’t even noticed he was still holding onto Shir’s wrist, nor how he was clenching it. Shir had forgotten about that fact too, until she felt the pain and had to forcefully free herself. 

“What is-“ Her words got cut off by Maul, who placed a hand over her mouth. In this brief moment, he saw the terror in her eyes. Fear had consumed her. He couldn’t really blame her, after all, he too felt powerless against such a foe. Now he wondered if she had heard the high-pitched noise as well. Somehow she didn’t seem affected by it at all. But answers had to wait. 

“Do you hear that banging?” They heard someone ask. The shaking voice was filled by horror. A moment of silence passed and everyone could hear the loud and clear banging at the end of the corridor.

“You think it’s… the creature?” Another person asked. 

“Of course it is, what else would it be.” A third said. The three of them stood around the corner, where Maul and Shir were hiding. 

“Have you still not contacted the bridge?”

“Like I said, there is no power and comms are jammed for some reason.” Maul recognized the voices. They belonged to the idiots who blocked the doorway earlier. 

“One would think they already know what the hell is going here.” The first one said again. 

“I doubt they do. Come on, let’s get out of here.” The voices started to fade as the three people walked away. Maul peaked around the corner, carefully, and saw they were gone. Shir had to remove his hand from her mouth to breathe again. 

“They’re gone.” His voice was soft, barely understandable. He walked around the corner. Shir followed, still a little shaky. The banging hadn’t stopped yet and it made her uneasy. With every loud thud, she looked behind her. The feeling that something was coming after them filled her with restlessness. But she found her senses again, when she recognized the layout of the ship. 

“The cargo bay is over there.” She pointed into the right direction. Maul looked into the direction and then at her. Her hand was shaking. He looked back into the direction from where they came and listened closely. The banging had stopped. That was not a good sign.

“Quickly, before that thing finds us.” He said in a quiet voice. They advanced through the darkness towards the cargo bay. Once they arrived there, things didn’t look good. The doors to the cargo area were blasted open. Some containers had been opened and the contents removed. Others were fallen over or even destroyed. On the walls were a few blast marks. The only good thing was, no claw marks. The creature hadn’t been here yet.

“Someone wanted something for himself.” Shir stated as she walked into the room. Maul followed her but stopped. He turned around and stared into the darkness they came from. Shir didn’t notice. She immediately started searching for the small container fitting the description given by her client. When she found it, she sighed relieved. However, after opening it, she felt her whole world shatter into pieces. Her heart beat rose and she cursed.

It was empty.


	4. Chapter 4

Maul turned around, when he heard her curse like that. That could not be a good sign. He saw how she kicked the container with her foot and it made a loud bang when it hit another, bigger container. Maul snarled. 

“Are you out of your mind? That noise could lead the creature right to us!” He shouted angrily at her. Shir didn’t even reply and just sat down on a spice containment unit, defeated. She buried her face in her hands and cursed softly. Then she ran one hand through her hair. In any other circumstances Maul might’ve enjoyed the sight, but this was not the time. 

“It’s empty.” Shir eventually said. Her voice had an undertone of bitterness in it. Maul was confused and stared at her, slightly tilting his head. Shir must’ve noticed it, or felt it. “The container. It’s empty. The asset isn’t in there.” She sighed heavily. “We came all the way for nothing.” 

Maul still stood there, watching her be frustrated. She had every right to be of course. But giving up just wasn’t an option for him. No, he refused to believe that they came all the way for nothing. Maul took one last look into the dark corridor, before walking over to Shir and sitting down next to her. “It has to be somewhere on this ship.” He stated. “My guess is, someone took it. Someone, who must’ve known its value and importance. You said it yourself, someone came in here to get something for themselves.”

Shir exhaled softly and collected her thoughts. Was he actually trying to cheer her up or was he just sharing his theories? She never would’ve thought he’d be capable of encouragement or cheering someone up. But it was never too late for surprises, because his words actually did make her feel better. He was right. The panic from encountering the beast earlier had clouded her mind. 

“You think it were those three guys we heard earlier?” She now asked in a much calmer voice. 

Maul shook his head. “No. They’re not smart enough. I don’t know what has occurred here.” He stroked his chin while thinking for a moment. “They were trying to contact the bridge. I wonder if they meant to inform their captain about the infiltrated cargo area or about the creature, lurking through the hallways.”

Shir hummed in agreement. Then she checked her wrist-comm, tapped it a few times and held it against her ear. “Nothing.” She sighed. “My communication is jammed as well. So, no contact with the client then. I just hope they won’t send some sort of elite unit after us. Or worse.” She muttered.

“Don’t worry. I doubt the emperor would want to send his own men or even his _loyal apprentice_ Vader on a mission like this.” His voice was filled with bitterness and hatred when he mentioned the name. “There’s a reason they hired a bounty hunter to do this job.” Maul continued, now with less emotion in his words. He looked at her; she just raised a brow. “No offense, but bounty hunters are expendable.” That didn’t make Shir happy at all, but he had a point. 

“You think they knew about this creature?” She now asked and leaned back, trying to somewhat relax. She needed to have a clear mind if they wanted to get out of here. The impending doom took a toll on her sanity. Especially the realisation, that neither blaster nor lightsaber could inflict any sort of serious harm against that thing. She just felt helpless, which gave way to panic and fear. Maul must’ve sensed it in her.

“I doubt it.” Maul replied and crossed his arms. “I’m still trying to figure out where it came fro-“ He stopped. His eyes grew wider when he suddenly spotted something in a dark corner of the cargo bay - something vital. Without saying anything further, he stood up and walked towards it. His sudden silence left Shir puzzled. 

“What? What is it?” She said and now stood up as well. Her heart was beating faster again, thanks to the anticipation he had now caused. Without waiting for an answer, she followed him into that specific corner of the room. The two of them stood in front of a rather large container unit. It was a few meters deep but not very high. The top reached just below Shir’s chest. But it was wide enough to probably fit both of them in there.

“All this time I was wondering where this creature came from or why it is here.” Maul said while inspecting the opening of the empty container. “But I think I know now.” He pointed at the hinges that were broken and at claw marks on the edges of the container. “The creature must’ve been brought on board in this unit.” Shir looked at him in disbelief. 

“What makes you think it was actually kept in here?”

“The hatch or whatever was attached to here is broken from the inside. And see…” He pointed at more claw marks on the inside walls. “That should prove my theory.” Shir bend her head to look inside and frowned. “That also means…” Maul continued, turning around again to look at the entrance to the cargo bay. “Someone didn’t infiltrate the cargo bay from the outside. The creature broke out of the cargo area from the inside.” He concluded when he saw the claw markings on the sides of the doors. He hadn’t noticed them earlier, since he had only seen the doors from the other side.

“Which lead the Brood members to open fire.” Shir continued. “That explains the blast marks on the other side.” Maul nodded. Shir was quiet for a moment and blinked her eyes while trying to fit all the pieces together. “Okay… but then how did it get up to the other level, where we saw those three slaughtered corpses and get back down here?” She now wondered. Maul was silent for a moment. 

“There are two options.” He eventually said. “One, the creature first went upstairs to cause chaos and then came back down here to damage the power system and engines, which caused the ship to fail – and that is just a theory, we don’t know if it was the creature who caused it.” 

“Yeah but it is very likely.” Shir interrupted him. 

“Indeed.” Maul nodded. “Why would it break out, first go up and slaughter some men, before returning here and do the same again.” He paused. “The second option is… And I hope it isn’t true… there is another creature on board. And lurks in the hallways on the upper level.” A moment of silence passed between them, in which Shir’s eyes were filled with terror and panic. One of them was bad enough! But now there were potentially two of them?!

“I really wish the first option to be true.” She eventually said. Her words were followed by a deep sigh. “But I think option two is more likely. I heard that weird… chewing sound or whatever it was, upstairs as well. And I highly doubt that thing could’ve followed us down here without making a noise.” She exhaled sharply and started pacing up and down in little circles with her hands on her back. 

“I’m afraid so as well.” Maul replied. “Besides, I think these creatures were brought onto the ship with a purpose.” Shir gave him a funny look. “Either the Haxion Brood transports these creatures to sell them to someone else. Or they were brought aboard by a third party to create a diversion.” And he knows all about diversions doesn’t he? 

Maul wanted to continue but the two of them flinched when hearing screams in the distance, followed by a loud roar and some blaster fire. Someone was shouting for help. More blaster fire followed, then a loud thud. Then they heard footsteps rapidly coming their way. Maul listened closely and could hear two pair of footsteps. One was light, the other were heavy. It sounded like a chase. Some more blaster fire, a scream, a growl and then silence. But there it was again, the chewing sound… 

Shir tensed up as she listened to the noises of terror echoing through the hallway. Eventually the cracking, of what she presumed were bones and metal, stopped. For a few seconds there was silence. Silence, which felt like it lasted for hours. Silence, in which they could feel their heartbeats in their throats and in which every breath felt heavier than the next. Silence so heavy, it was almost crushing them. Maul and Shir stood completely still; bodies tensed up from anticipation. Eyes fixed on the entrance of the cargo bay. Hands clenched into fists, almost crushing themselves by the sheer pressure. Waiting for the moment they might meet their end. But there was nothing. Only silence.

Then, suddenly, they heard heavy footsteps coming their way. Metal clanking that could only be associated with their upcoming doom. 

As soon as Maul heard them he unfroze and could very clearly feel the creature coming towards their position. Quickly, he grabbed Shir’s wrist, since she was still tensed up, and dragged her with him to hide behind some bigger containers. And just in time! As soon as they were out of sight, the creature entered the cargo area. The two of them cowered behind the metal objects. Shir held a hand in front of her mouth to keep her breathing as silent as possible. She was leaning against Maul and could feel his rapid pulse. At least she wasn’t the only one panicking right now. 

While Shir kept her head low, Maul dared to look over the edge of the container to see what the creature was doing. He had the opportunity to take a closer look at it as well. In the darkness he could see the blue-ish spikes on its back, now lowered. The tail was slowly swinging from one side to the other. It was walking on four legs and its head, which resembled that of a lizard, was bent down to inspect the floor. He could clearly see blood dripping out of its mouth. In light of the cargo bay he recognized its entire body was covered in scales. That must’ve been why neither the blasts nor his lightsaber had any effect on it. He watched how the creature was walking around in circles, like a predator pursuing its prey. The big claws on the metal surface made a deafening screech with every step. The friction sometimes even produced a spark or two. Maul could very clearly hear it growling and sniffling while walking around. It was looking for them. And these containers barely provided any cover; they needed to get out!

Unfortunately, the creature blocked their exit. They were trapped.


	5. Chapter 5

Shir could still hear the monster in the room, walking around and sniffing. The low growling was honestly terrifying, but she was more focused on controlling her breathing so it wouldn’t alert the creature. She started to sweat from nervousness and her entire body was tensed up. If they could at least shoot that thing to death it wouldn’t be such a problem! She urged Maul to get down, by tucking at his robe, but he kept watch. 

However, when he saw how the creature turned its head towards his direction he quickly ducked and hid behind the container, almost gasping. He could literally feel the beast walk towards their direction. Had it spotted them? He quickly looked at Shir, who stared back at him. Somehow he hoped, she wouldn’t notice his own fear. But that was highly unlikely. Either way, someone had to keep a clear mind and formulate a plan to get out of this trap. Suddenly they could feel the container, they used as cover, move and shuffle. The creature was on the other side and was most likely pushing it. It wouldn’t take long for it to discover them. Maul held his breath for what seemed an eternity. How come he was helpless when facing this one creature, but he used to hunt Rathtars for sport? This was pathetic! 

And then he had an idea. 

But how was he going to communicate it to Shir without saying a word. He turned his head to look at her and used hand gestures to explain what his plan was as good as he could. Shir first looked confused, but after Maul had ‘explained’ it a few more times, she finally understood and nodded, grabbing her blasters. Maul counted down to three with his fingers. At the count of zero, he quickly turned around and used the Force to push the container, and with that the creature, across the room and against a wall. Thankfully the creature wasn’t fast enough to evade. It howled and tried to get out of the way of the container. It hit the wall with a loud thud. However, the container that hit it at full speed didn’t seem to have harmed it.

The second, Maul launched the creature across the room, Shir got up, fired a few blasts at it and made a run for the exit. She turned around to see where Maul was, but he was still holding the creature in his grasp – behind the container. The beast screeched, a sound that almost made their ears bleed, and struggled, eventually, biting its way through the container unit. The screech must’ve affected the Zabrak in the same way as during their first encounter. It sent a high-pitched noise through his head, which cause him to grit his teeth in pain. He wouldn’t lose this fight! Maul resisted the excruciating pain in his head as well as he could. He grunted in exhaustion, before throwing the creature with the use of the Force into another corner of the room. The creature landed in the midst of a pile of metal containers and whined in pain or frustration – nobody knew. Maul panted and rubbed his head, thankfully the noise stopped. He saw how the creature was already getting back up on its feet and he hurried to catch up with Shir.

“Run!” he yelled. 

Without further ado, she followed his command. Not even looking back once. The howling and snarling of the creature behind her was enough motivation to keep her going. From the corner of her eyes, she witnessed how the beast ran out of the cargo bay. Not being fast enough to stop, it first bumped into the wall of the corridor before it began pursuing them. Quickly Shir looked in front of her again and ran as fast as she could.

She was so focused on running that she totally lost her way in the maze of corridors. Her breathing was fast and short as her heart was racing. She feared her legs would give in any moment, but luckily the adrenaline kept her going. Eventually she noticed that Maul wasn’t behind her anymore and she stopped. Panting heavily, she turned around and listened. The creature roared in the distance. But where was the Zabrak? Did he get…? She didn’t want to finish that thought. 

“Maul?” She shouted softly into the darkness. Great. Pointing her blasters at the darkness in the hallway, she started to slowly walk backwards – thinking that was a good idea. Who could even think straight anymore in this situation. Even the Sith seemed to panic. Somehow that was a comforting thought. At least she didn’t have to feel so weak and pathetic now. She called his name another time, but there was no answer.

Just when she turned around a corner, she could feel how she bumped into something. Filled by tension and thinking it was the creature, she let out a shriek while quickly turning around and firing two blasts. But she lowered her blasters after she recognized the face of the Zabrak, who had also exclaimed a surprised shout upon their collision and had ignited his lightsaber. 

“Maul! What the hell! You almost gave me a heart attack!” She shouted but kept her voice down. Maul found his composure again and the fear quickly faded from his face. He turned his saber off.

“You decided to walk backwards!” He spat back, but when they heard the creature howl – this time closer – they quickly pressed themselves against the wall for as much cover as they could. It was foolish to think they could escape the creature this way, but it was better than standing in the middle of the hallway, right? They didn’t say anything for another moment, then the noises of the creature faded away as it moved on. Relieved, both exhaled. 

“How are we going to defeat this thing?” Shir asked in a quiet and desperate voice. Maul stroked his chin for a moment while he thought. 

“We cannot kill it. At least not with any weapons we posses.” He stated. “Which is very unfortunate. However, we might not need to.” Shir now looked confused. She hated when he was being so mysterious. 

“Do you have a plan or not?” Her words were filled with impatience. 

“Working on it.” Maul muttered. “There must be some sort of escape hatch on this ship, right?” He turned to her. She could tell he was eager to set his plan into motion. Shir couldn’t blame him. She wanted to get rid of that beast as soon as possible, get their asset and leave. She promised herself a vacation after this horror story was over.

“Yes… Yes I think there is.” She tried to remember the layout of the lower deck, which was hard since her heart was beating out of control and she was still panting. Somewhere in her fade memory she remembered one such hatch – mostly used for garbage and other waste. “It’s….” She looked around. “This way. I think.” Her finger pointed into yet another hallway. It didn’t help that everything looked the same.

“Good enough.” Maul didn’t wait any longer and hurried down that corridor. Shir quickly followed him, still sometimes looking over her shoulder to see if the beast wasn’t following them. Luckily, there wasn’t any sight of it. The two of them moved swiftly through the hallway. One would almost think they were the hunters instead of the prey.

“Care to fill me in on your plan?” Shir asked while they were on their way. Even though she already had a slight suspicion of what he was planning to do.

“No creature can withstand the vacuum of space on the long run. At least not any creature, that doesn’t live in space.” Maul explained. “And since we cannot kill it with weapons, we’ll simply have to throw it overboard.” That sounded so much easier in his head than it was going to be, probably. Shir thought the same. But it was their best bet right now. 

“Alright, that sounds like a solid plan. But how are you going to get the creature down here?” She said once they arrived at the escape hatch. By the looks of it, the doors were big enough to fit the creature through. There was one set of doors to an empty room. Behind it was another set of doors, leading to space – an airlock. Maul didn’t answer her question; he was too busy inspecting the airlock. He saw some cables, secured to the wall, with a metal loop attached to it. Those must be for safety reasons, when the airlock opens to not get sucked out into space. Good, they were going to need those.

“We will lure the creature into the airlock.” Maul now explained. “Or rather, we’ll lure it close enough for me to push it into the airlock and you to flip the switch.” He pointed at the button, which opened the doors into space. 

“That sounds like a suicidal plan, but I guess we have no other option.” Shir said, but her voice lacked confidence. “And how are we going to bring the creature here? This deck is a maze of corridors and it’s dark, so I can’t see properly. Besides, I doubt we could outrun it.” 

Maul was pacing up and down, trying to think of something. The noises of the creature lurking in the distance really unsettled him. They needed bait and the only options were either he or she. His first reflex was to use her as bait, but he quickly changed his mind. No. He had far better chances to fight off the creature and get out of this alive. That didn’t mean he liked it. Besides, it seemed the creature had a preference towards droids and the cybernetically enhanced. This of course meant, that if the creature did manage to get to him, his legs were going to be crushed and with that any chances of survival. Better not think of that.

Maul sighed heavily. “I’ll lure it here.” He said, much against his own will. That did seem to surprise Shir. But at the same time she looked relieved, yet also worried. “You will remain here and make sure to open those doors.” He commanded her. Shir nodded without an answer. Maul took another last look at her, as if this was some sort of goodbye. Well, it could be, depending on how successful he was. He knew what danger the creature posed and what it could do to leave him defenceless, yet he felt confident enough he was going to accomplish his task. 

“There are no comms, so we won’t be able to communicate.” There was concern in Shir’s voice. Not only did she care about this crazy Zabrak more than she would like to admit, but without him, this mission had a much higher rate of failure. “How will I know where you are or if you have been… potentially eaten by that thing?” It sure wasn’t something she wanted to think about. But it was a possibility and it needed to be addressed. If he got eaten or killed by that thing, she probably was going to be next. And she’d rather catapulted herself into space before getting eaten alive.

“You’re giving that creature too much credit.” Maul grinned. “I won’t let it eat me.” He tried to sound confident. “I used to hunt Rathtars for sport when I was younger. I think I’m going to be fine.”

“You did _what_?!” Shir exclaimed, a little too loud. Maul shushed her immediately. ”You hunted… what the hell, Maul!” She now exclaimed, just as in much shock as before, but a little quieter this time. Just when she thought this man couldn’t be any crazier… 

“There’s no time for that now!” Maul quickly stated. Maybe he’ll tell her about his adventures another time. “You will most likely probably hear the creature coming from miles away.” Was the last thing he said before turning around. “Just, be ready to open the airlock.” He added a hand gesture to his words and started walking. 

Shir watched him disappear into the darkness. She couldn’t shake the concerns for his safety. This man was absolutely insane. But what other options did they have? She couldn’t come up with a better plan. However, in this moment she realized that after this creature was dead – or thrown overboard – there was most likely another one on this ship. Not a very comforting thought. 

“You just make sure to not get eaten…” Shir mumbled to herself after Maul was out of sight. By now she also figured that this creature was keen on metal and seemed to like gnawing on droids and people with cybernetics. Bad news for Maul, who was half droid. However, she was just as in much danger, considering she wore metal armour. 

This stupid plan better worked.


	6. Chapter 6

The corridors on this ship seemed to be even darker, now that Maul was venturing through them by himself. He tried so hard to get his heartbeat under control. Fear was his ally, not his enemy – at least that is what he kept telling himself. And yet, being faced with this unidentified creature made him lose focus and control. It was a weakness he hated to admit. And to him, it was completely unjustified. Maybe it was the fact, that he couldn’t inflict any harm upon it with his lightsaber. However, that hadn’t stopped him from killing before. Or how he phrased it: surviving. That also got him thinking; perhaps he ought to use that strategy once more. Then again, this creature’s skin was far more advanced than mere clone armour. But it would be a good last resort should all else fail. 

While walking, being guided by the noises the creature made – which were more infrequent by now – Maul started thinking about his plan of attack. He could try using his lightsaber again. Thinking back of their first encounter, it at least caused some sort of damage. It also gave him an opening to collect himself and prepare for another blow. In a fight such as this, that could be vital. But his objective wasn’t to kill the beast; instead he had to lure it down the path he came. The tricky part was remembering all the junctions. Unlike Shir, his memory wasn’t that good when it concerned maps. However, he had the Force. And he could use it to sense Shir, for some reason. Maul wasn’t quite sure what it was, but she had a faint presence in the Force. All he had to do then was to follow that presence. Hopefully that was going to be as easy as he made it sound. 

First things first: he needed to locate this creature. It was proving to be rather difficult, now that it had gone silent. Maul didn’t like this. It meant that is was most likely hiding somewhere in the shadows, waiting for him. He moved around the hallways swiftly and tried to sense its presence. Why this creature had a presence in the Force, one stronger than the bounty hunter, was also a puzzle. How could a creature be one with the Force? How unlikely that was, it would explain its strong reflexes. Questions upon questions and he wouldn’t get any answers. He didn’t need them, though. After all, he was going to kill the creature anyway. 

But suddenly, he couldn’t sense it anymore. All this time, he was pestered by this eerie presence and now it was gone! Just when it actually came in useful! Things never worked out for him! Frustrated, he continued walking. 

After a few more minutes there it was again. That feeling as if something was lurking at him from the shadows. As if something was following him. He could feel it so strongly, he almost didn’t want to turn around. However, he overcame that fear and slowly turned his head to look over his shoulder. But there was nothing. Just the vastness of the dark. Carefully he looked in front of him again. His hand clenched around his lightsaber. After exhaling sharply, he continued his search. 

“Always remember, I am fear.” He started whispering to himself. Did he actually believe those words? At some point he did, but in this moment he doubted his belief in them. “Always remember, I am hunter.” Honestly, that just sounded as a joke in this situation. It was a blatant lie. He wasn’t in control of this scenario, the creature clearly was. But he repeated the sentences a few times, in a cold whisper to himself. Why? He wasn’t quite sure. Maybe it made him feel more confident to face this foe. How ironic, usually he felt confident enough to face anything – some would argue he got overconfident perhaps. That might be true, but he refused to admit it and there refused to change anything about his flaw. But shockingly enough, he heard his voice shake. There was no confidence in his words; they were empty.

While sweeping through the hallways, he repeated those sentences again and again. It wasn’t really working. If anything, it just made him more nervous. But then his ears picked up a noise, not far from his current position. Instead of pressing himself against the wall for cover, he stopped in his tracks and listened. The noise came from around the corner. Not in front of him, but behind him. 

“Always remember, I am fear.” Maul mumbled again. “Always remember, I am hunter.” Suddenly, the faith he once put in those words returned to him and he could feel the anger for this creature and his own incompetence flow through his body. Good, anger was the best kind of fuel. He ignited his lightsaber. “Always remember I am filth.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He could already hear the creature growling behind him; heavy footsteps coming closer. ”Always remember I am… nothing.” 

Maul turned around and stood face to face with the creature – only a few meters in between. The zabrak stared right into the three glowing red eyes. The creature made sure to show off its razor sharp teeth, of which it had not only one row, but at least three. They were stained red from the blood of its devoured victims. The spikes on its back stood up straight again, Maul figured it was a sign of aggression. Its tail slowly moved from one side to the other. Its head and front paws were low, a clear sign it could be attacking any moment. 

How frightening this creature might have been, Maul wouldn’t let fear consume him like he had before. This time he knew what he was up against! He spun his lightsaber around and held it in front of him, glaring at the creature. That thing wasn’t the only one with glowing eyes. Maul’s eyes might not have been red, but the yellow in his own certainly pierced through the darkness as much as the red of the creature. Maul felt the Dark Side flow through him and he no longer felt like the prey. Instead, it was as if two predators stood across each other. Hatred and anger overshadowed his fear and made him feel stronger. 

“Come get me, if you dare.” He taunted the creature. Not that it could understand him, but he didn’t care. The spoken words gave him confidence and he could feel the thrill to kill return to his body. This is what he had been missing all this time! This is how it felt to be master of one’s situation. He was in complete control of his fear and used his hatred as a source of strength, just as he was taught. This creature wouldn’t let him get intimidated again. His breathing was slow and his pulse dropped. Good, he was going to need every bit of focus to make his plan work. 

For moments Maul and the creature stood motionless in the dim lighted corridor. The zabrak was waiting for the creature to attack. But it just stood there; slowly moving its tail from left to right. What was it planning? Was it planning at all? Why wasn’t it attacking? The anticipation actually made him feel a little nervous now. Should he attack? No, that was not a good idea. The creature had to come to him. Patience had never been his strength. But in the past it had proven vital. This time he wouldn’t do the same mistakes again. While waiting, he re-adjusted the grip on his lightsaber.

In that split second, the creature suddenly roared, opened its large mouth and launched its tongue at the zabrak. Maul shouldn’t have let his guard down for that second, it seemed the creature was waiting for just that! Luckily enough he could shift his weight towards the side to evade the long tongue. In the split second it flew passed him, he could see it was covered in tiny teeth. As if the arsenal of teeth in its mouth wasn’t bad enough! 

The creature retreated its tongue only for it to launch at him again. This time Maul was prepared. He ducked and swung his lightsaber in a circle to cut the tongue. The creature whined in pain and quickly retreated what it had left of its tongue. Maul stood up straight again. Without losing any time, the beast ran towards him, with mouth wide open and aimed for his legs. The Sith jumped up and slashed his lightsaber against the neck of the best. It whined again. In the moment of short victory, Maul didn’t notice its tail, which flung towards him and knocked him a few meters through the hallway onto the floor. His lightsaber rolled out of his hand. 

He didn’t get any chance to grab it, as he could feel the floor trembling and turned around to see the creature charging at him. Surprisingly, it launched its tongue at him again. Maul rolled around on the floor to do his best and evade every attack. He didn’t have time to shove it back with the Force and so the creature was now hovering above him, trying to take a bite out of any part of his body. Luckily for Maul, he was more agile and did his best to evade every chomp. However, it was taking its toll on him. He became slower and sloppier. It had almost gotten a bite out of his shoulder!

Just when he rolled on his back, the creature aimed its mouth full of teeth at his torso. In a flash, he used the Force to rip out a wall panel and use it as a shield. The teeth of the creature sank into the heavy durasteel. It used its weight to press itself down onto him, trying to squish its prey. Maul grunted and tried his best to press back, but even with the Force that seemed almost impossible. He felt the cold floor against his cheek, as he was being pressed down even further. No, this was not how this was going to end! 

With a shout of frustration, he stretched out his arms and while using the Force, he first threw the creature against the ceiling and then pushed it down the hallway. The beast struggled and roared; eventually digging it’s sharp claws into the metal flooring. Sparks flew, until it eventually stood still. Maul was still pushing, gritting his teeth. The creature then screeched and Maul could feel the high-pitched sound penetrating his mind once more. He closed his eyes and tried with all his might to resist. Shouting didn’t help, sadly. But eventually he had to give in and he lost his grip on the creature, which immediately charged at him. Maul reached for his lightsaber, ignited it and went right for its eyes before jumping out of the way. It all went so fast that he couldn’t see if he actually hit something. But by the sounds of it, he thought he finally injured the creature. 

The unidentified beast whined in pain, shook its head a few times and then turned around to face him, now looking angrier than before. Maul turned his lightsaber off and slowly started to back away while panting.

The chase had begun.


	7. Chapter 7

Maul jumped out of the way of the creature as it attacked him once more, trying to go for his legs. This time however, he wasn’t trying to counterattack. He was luring it towards his trap. Instead of slashing it with his lightsaber, he made a run for it. The creature, getting back on its feet, saw him disappear into the darkness, howled and went in pursuit. It was fast and it used its claws to slide around the corners. Sometimes its momentum was so great, it lost its grip, bashing into the wall of the hallway. 

Maul could hear the loud thud of the collision and took a look over his shoulder only to see the monster was right behind him. It launched its tongue at him again, and he ducked, sliding around the corner, before getting back on his feet and continuing the run. The creature followed him while roaring. Maul could almost feel its breath in his neck, that was how close it had gotten. When he realized this, he turned around and pushed it back with the use of the Force, right before it wanted to bite into his shoulder. Maul didn’t bother to look if his attack succeeded, he continued running. Standing still was a luxury he couldn’t afford right now. 

He turned right, then left, another left and another right, trying to find his way back to Shir. It was hard to pinpoint her location through the Force while being chased by a monster with a mouth full of teeth. But as he was trying to figure out where to go next, he realized it had gotten quiet. Maul stopped. He turned around and noticed the creature wasn’t there. He panted and quickly looked left and right, scanning every corridor for the red-eyed monster. But it wasn’t there! Or was he overlooking it? 

Suddenly he was hit in his back and flew through the air a few meters, into another hallway. With a grunt he hit the cold metallic floor. Without losing time he turned around on his back to see what had caused him to soar through the air. Unsurprisingly, the creature appeared out of the darkness, bellowing and showing off its teeth. Maul, almost doing the same by gritting his teeth, got back up on his feet. He clenched his fists. 

“You are smarter than you look.” He muttered under his breath. The creature didn’t move, only it’s tail swung from one side to the other. Then, it stood on its hind legs, lifted its torso and came crushing down on its front paws while roaring so loudly, almost the entire ship could’ve heard it. Maul had to cover his ears, they felt like they were bleeding after such a deafening noise. And when it was quiet again, he could only hear a high-pitched beep in his ears, much like after a loud explosion. It disoriented him for a second. The monster used that opening to charge at him and thrusting its head into him, sending him flying across the hallways again. With a grunt, Maul hit the wall and then the floor. He had to cough a few times, the creature hit him right in the stomach, which caused him to grasp for air. But there was no time for recovery. He needed to get up and get moving! That thing was coming for him again. 

Stretching out his arms and using the Force to push it back as much as he could, Maul got on his legs again. He watched the creature struggle and trying to resist the invisible push. Maul closed his eyes and could feel the Force of the Dark Side flow through him. He took a step forward, using his other foot behind him to creature a counterforce and kept pushing. By now his arms were trembling from the body tension. With a loud grunt he sent the creature flying through the air and into the darkness of the corridor. After taking a deep breath to recover, he turned around and started running again. 

The noises behind him indicated, the monster was back on its feet and continued its pursuit. Maul concentrated on finding Shir, there was no need in prolonging this fight. Even though, deep down, he was enjoying it. The thrill of the chase, the fighting; it made him feel 10 years younger. It almost gave him another purpose and he realized he had missed this. It would’ve been even better if he could slice the creature into tiny pieces with his double bladed lightsaber, like the Rathtars he used to hunt. 

The chase continued through the maze of the lower deck. Maul was convinced he had seen every corridor at least twice by now, but he couldn’t find his way back to the airlock. He also couldn’t just stand still for a moment to think about which way to go next. Every decision had to be made in a flash. Hesitation could mean death. Whenever the creature caught up with him, he used the Force to push it back, to put more distance between himself and the monster. Then finally, he could feel Shir’s presence coming closer! Now he had a clear path and he speeded up.

The zabrak arrived at a T-junction and wanted to turn right, but the creature had outsmarted him. It came from the left and surprised him, using its tail to catapult him through the air once more. Grunting in pain he hit the floor. After a few seconds he jumped back on its feet, only to see the creature charging towards him. But now he waited. And waited. Just a little closer. Right before the creature would’ve hit him, he jumped up, turned sideways in the air while the creature ran passed him underneath, and landed on the floor. The monster, not able to stop, crashed into another metal wall of the hallway. However, it quickly turned around and came for him again. Maul growled softly and turned around to run, turning right as he wanted to earlier. 

He could feel he was close; the airlock must be at the end of the hallway. Yes! In the distance he could see Shir. But now how was he going to get that thing inside the airlock without getting sucked into space himself? He’d have to improvise. However, he had to reach the airlock first. 

While trying to think of a plan, he didn’t notice the creature catching up. It launched its tongue once more at him and this time he was not fast enough. Maul tried to evade, but the tongue striped his torso and sent a sting through his body. Suddenly he couldn’t feel his legs anymore. He tripped and fell face first onto the floor, sliding a meter or two further down. He wanted to stand up, but his legs had gone numb. Panic started to rise within. Using his arms, he turned around to see the creature slowly coming towards him. Maul crawled backwards, away from the monster as fast as he could, but it was no use. The creature leaped forward with wide opened mouth. Just when it thought it had caught its prey, it was hit in the face with a piece of metal ripped from the wall. 

As a last resort, Maul started to rip out more wall panels with the Force and threw them at the creature to stop its attack. The beast growled in ager and tried again and again to attack its prey, but Maul continued his tactics while crawling backwards. The creature was coming closer and closer. Eventually a piece of metal was all that separated him from the three rows of razor sharp teeth in its mouth. Then, he heard blasterfire and the shots hit the creature. It had to take a few steps back, giving Maul an opening to retreat. He looked behind him to see Shir standing a few meters away with her blasters in her hand. But that was mistake. 

The creature, ignoring the shots that were being fired at it, caught up with Maul and bit his leg. Maul cried out in pain and could feel himself getting dragged away by the beast. Desperately he tried to hold onto the floor, but it was too smooth to find any grip. He was grunting and struggling, the panic in his voice was not to be overheard. Shir watched while still shooting at the creature and trying to make it release the zabrak. 

“They eyes!” Maul shouted in desperation. “AIM FOR THE EYES!!” He needed to free his leg from that thing’s mouth as soon as possible, before it was crushed completely. Shir followed his instructions and aimed her fire at the eyes of the creature. It whined in pain and let go off the zabrak. Maul, now free, used all the strength he had left to crawl away from the monster while it was being fired upon and thus unable to move. With Maul unable to walk and Shir occupied with blasting the monster until she ran out of ammunition, they were running out of time! They needed to throw this beast into the cold vacuum of space now or they were getting eaten!

“Shir! Open the doors!” Maul shouted. 

“But we’ll get sucked into space!” She shouted back while still firing, not giving the creature one second to recover. Said creature was still screeching and howling in pain; turning and struggling. Maul didn’t have time to explain his entire plan. With the use of the Force he pulled two security cables, which were attached to the walls next to airlock, towards them. 

“Attach it to yourself!” He quickly said. He knew very well, it meant that she needed to stop blasting in order to secure herself. Shir knew it as well, he could tell by the look in her eyes. But he urged her to do it anyway. “Do it!”

“You’re insane!” She yelled before grabbing the cable and thus having to stop blasting. Quickly she grabbed the metal loop at the end of the cable and attached it to her belt. Her shaking fingers wouldn’t cooperate and it took her longer to accomplish this easy task. The creature took the moment to recover from the blasts. It shook its head and even used its paw to rub its eyes. While it was still distracted Maul took the other cable and secured it around his waist. 

Not even two seconds after he had done that, the beast came for him again. Maul used some of the metal pieces lying around to shield himself from the creature’s wrath and hunger. “Open the doors!” He shouted at Shir. The bounty hunter nodded without hesitation, headed back to the airlock and flipped the switch. 

Only… the doors wouldn’t open.

How… How could they have forgotten this vital piece of information?

Shir froze as she stared at the switch, which should open the airlock. She flipped it again and again, in a desperate attempt to get the doors open. But it was no use. Without power, those doors weren’t going to open. She turned her head to see Maul still lying on the floor, doing his best to keep the creature from devouring him.

What were they going to do now?


	8. Chapter 8

Maul was deep in trouble, so he was no help at the moment. The zabrak still struggled to prevent the monster from eating him. He had a promise to keep after all. _I won’t let that thing eat me,_ were his exact words. Well, he certainly was trying his hardest to accomplish that. The creature was getting more aggressive and Maul was starting to get tired from ripping out pieces of metal from the wall, using them as shields or just hurling them at the creature. It didn’t matter how much he threw at it, it just wouldn’t back down or it simply chomped the metal panel in half with its giant mouth. At least he prevented the beast from trying to gnaw at his legs again. His left foot was damaged enough as it was!

Meanwhile Shir stood in front of the closed airlock. The power was still out and apparently this airlock didn’t function on emergency powers. There was simply not enough time. No way she could run to the engine room, fix the power issue and return. In that time the creature would’ve torn Maul apart and caught her while trying to escape. No, she had to find a simpler option. Feeling the sweat drop from her face and hearing the noises of Maul fighting against the creature were feeding her stress level. These were no pleasant circumstances to work in. But she had an idea. 

She grabbed her blaster and shot the panel of the airlock open. It wasn’t as if there was no power at all, just not enough to open these doors. Rewiring some of the power from the hallway lights to the airlock should do the trick. However, that meant that the hallway was going to turn pitch black. It was already hard enough to see with the dim lights. And in the complete blackness it was even more terrifying to fight that creature. But it was better than getting ripped to shreds. On top of that they were running out of options. A decision needed to be made.

Quickly, Shir removed what was left of the panel and got to work. She was so glad she learnt about advanced electronics and mechanics of space ships. Otherwise, this would’ve been a nightmare. She used her knife to cut a few wires and redirected them into another output. Nothing seemed to work thus far. While working she glanced over at the zabrak, fighting for his life. She wished she could help him – well she was by trying to open these doors, but it felt so useless. Maybe she should also give Maul a head’s up of what she was about to do.

“I’ll have to open the doors manually. The power’s not sufficient!” She decided to keep her words brief. She had no idea if he could even hear her. 

“What?!” Ah, he could hear her, judging by that tone of his. 

“It’s gonna go dark!” She added while still doing her best to finish her work. Her fingers were trembling and wouldn’t cooperate. Eventually she had figured out the right combination of wires. Sparks emanated from the panel and Shir had to hold her arm in front of her face as a shield. The moment that happened, the hallway lights flickered a few times and turned off. At the same time, the airlock doors started opening and the oxygen filled air was getting sucked out into outer space. 

Shir was glad she was attached to that safety line, which at the sudden drag, snapped into place. The sudden tug on her body was painful and Shir had to gasp when it happened. She clenched onto the cable and hoped to the stars it would hold against the vacuum of space. She turned her head towards Maul and the creature. Metal debris was flying towards her fast and she had to duck a few times to avoid it. 

As soon as the airlock opened, Maul felt himself being sucked towards it and really hoped that safety line was going to actually save him from a cold death. Closely behind him was the creature, which was getting sucked towards the door to the vacuum of space as well. It howled and growled, trying to dig its claws into the metal and hold onto something. But there was no escape from space. Maul had to watch out to not get attacked by its spinning tail. 

However, shockingly he realized that the doors hadn’t opened fully for the creature to fit through. He noticed it too late and with a loud thud, he collided with one of the half open doors of the airlock. He looked back and saw how the beast was getting pulled towards him. With its claws deeply sunken into the metal floor, it could delay its journey for only a little bit. Then he looked to the side of the airlock and saw Shir standing there, holding onto her life. Maul managed to get to her, by pulling himself via the cable towards her direction. 

“By ‘open’ I meant to open them all the way!” Maul shouted, but the wind of the oxygen escaping through the hatch made it almost impossible to hear. 

“This was your stupid idea in the first place!” Shir shouted back angrily. Somehow, even in the face of death, they managed to nag at each other. 

In a last attempt to take its prey into certain death, the creature growled and got ready to attack. Shir was too preoccupied with holding onto the safety line to notice. Besides, the oxygen in the hallways was getting fewer and fewer, which made it evidentially harder to breathe. Maul however, did notice what the creature was up to and knew they had to protect themselves. In a last effort, he grabbed one of the last metal pieces with the Force and held it into front of them. Just in time. The creature launched smaller spikes, attached to sides of its back, at the pair. The metal fulfilled its purpose as shield, even if the dark blue stings came through the sheet and stopped just millimetres in front of their faces. 

Maul threw the metal object at the monster, which whined in pain. “Keep it occupied!” He yelled at Shir and nodded at their opponent. Shir thought he was joking for a second, but clearly he wasn’t. With one hand she grabbed her blaster and tensed up her arm before shooting at the nasty beast. Meanwhile Maul, with one stretched out arm, concentrated on opening those doors. He used the Force to pull them open all the way. The suction of the vacuum became even greater now and he could feel the cable around his waist digging into his skin, almost making it impossible to breathe. 

It was also more difficult for the creature to hold onto its life. It was now rapidly getting pulled towards the airlock. Shir continued to blast it and aimed for its feet but eventually she had no strength left to keep her arm up and had to use both hands to hold onto the safety line. Maul had had enough, his anger for this creature pumped through his body and he made good use of it. With the help of the Force, he pulled the creature towards him and promptly swung it out of the airlock with a loud grunt, outing his frustrations and exhaustion. The beast howled and tried to somehow stop its descent into the vastness of space, but once it had lost its grasp on the metal flooring, it flew through the airlock into the cold darkness. As soon as it was thrown overboard, Maul used the Force to close the airlock doors. The suction stopped and the immense tension on the safety cables dropped immediately. Both Shir and Maul dropped onto the floor, exhausted and panting desperately, with backs leaning against the wall. It was pitch black. Only a few rays of starlight made their way into the hallway through the windows in the airlock.

For a good while neither of them said anything. Both zabrak and human were just happy to be alive – more or less. They needed this time of complete silence to recollect their emotions and thoughts. And also calm their rapidly beating hearts. Shir slowly started to move her fingers, which had almost gotten numb from hanging on for dear life. They were aching and it was painful to even move them a little bit. After a few tries, she finally got some feeling back into them. Her legs however, were a different story. The safety line attached to her belt had caused a great amount of pressure on her belly, which was now aching. She wouldn’t be surprised if she had any sort of contused wounds. Still breathing heavily, she tried to get in enough oxygen to keep herself from falling unconscious.

Meanwhile Maul pulled up his legs a few times, to see if they were still operational. His right one was. The left one hurt like hell and it made him flinch in pain. In the dark he could see a few sparks coming from it. The overwhelming pain hadn’t gotten through to him during the fight, since they were still numbed. But now, the feeling in his legs was returning. He had no idea how badly damaged his leg was nor if he could stand on it. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the tension of the safety cable secured around his waist left him with more pain and most likely bruises if not serious wounds. With a deep sigh, the Sith closed his eyes and leaned his head against the wall. His chest was still going up and down in short motions. 

“Kriff…” He muttered. His voice was filled with hatred, exhaustion but also relief. Shir couldn’t remember the last time she had heard him swear. 

“Taking the words right out of my mouth…” She said in response, between deep breaths. Her body felt numb and her muscles were tired. Only thinking about getting up made her feel even more exhausted. No, the floor and wall were rather comfortable now. 

Eventually, she was the first of the two, who slowly got on her feet with a grunt. Keeping close to the wall, she made her way to the window of the airlock and looked outside. In the distance she saw what remained of the creature – drifting through space. It almost looked peaceful. Then she looked down at her side and vaguely saw Maul sitting there. His yellow eyes lit up in the dark. 

“How badly damaged is your leg?” 

Hissing in pain, Maul grabbed his lightsaber and ignited one end of it to create some source of light. Shir squatted down to inspect the wound. The outer metal layer of his left leg was covered in scratches. She could clearly see where the creature had sunk its teeth in and left gaping holes. Interestingly enough, it hadn’t bitten down that hard, since the metal wasn’t too badly malformed. His ankle looked pretty messed up though and if she didn’t get that fixed, it was highly unlikely he could walk. 

“How bad is it?” Maul asked. 

“It could be worse.” Shir just replied and stood up straight again. “I’m going to have to fix you though, there’s no way you can walk with that.” She held out her hand for him to get up. “But I should get what I need down here.” 

Maul stared at her hand for a moment and sighed before taking it and carefully getting up. He put his arm around Shir’s neck for support and held the lightsaber in front of them for some light. Shir put one arm around his waist and grabbed his wrist, which was around her neck, with the other. Then they started walking towards the cargo bay.

“I sure hope that reward is worth it.” Maul muttered under his breath while they were walking.


	9. Chapter 9

“Ow!” Maul hissed in pain as Shir was trying to fix his leg as good as she could. ‘Try’ being the key word here. She was no medical droid and certainly hadn’t followed any medical studies of the sort. But she knew mechanics and to at least makeshift fix this man’s leg. 

“Would you sit still!” She said back sharply and gave him a stern look usually given by a parent to their child. “I can’t fix you if you keep moving! Don’t make me tie you up.” She could and most certainly would if necessary. How long it would keep the Sith still was another question. 

“You could try and be a bit more careful.” Maul muttered, but it only earned him another unimpressed look from the bounty hunter. Yes, of course he was glad she possessed enough knowledge and was skilled enough to at least make him walk again. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t mope about it. He sighed deeply and tried his best to sit still, which proved to be a lot harder than he thought it would. He first had seen it as a challenge, yes he liked challenges, but it was just annoying now. He could not remain still! Especially not after being chased through the hallways by a monster and almost getting eaten, only to escape with his life in the last second. Maul was either bouncing up and down his right knee and when Shir commanded him to stop it, he was tapping his fingers against the metal container he was sitting on. 

Shir sighed in frustration. “I’m doing my best, okay? I’m not a medical droid.” She muttered as she continued her work. 

Earlier, she had seen a rather large med pack in the cargo bay. After their fight over life and death with the creature, she remembered it and that is why the two of them were now sitting in the cargo bay. Thankfully, the lights were still on and it wasn’t pitch black. The electricity for this room must be on a different line than the one Shir redirected towards the airlock earlier. It wasn’t a lot of light, however. Conveniently there was a flashlight in the med pack, which Shir could use to inspect Maul’s ankle and it made her work easier. There were also some painkillers and bacta patches she could use for both of them. 

After what seemed an eternity, it were just 15 minutes, Shir finished and put the tools away – which she had also found in one of the containers. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and stood up, stretching her back and arms. 

“There, that should do.” She said and gestured at Maul’s leg. The zabrak inspected it closely; it really didn’t look any better. Carefully, he stood up and was rather surprised he could actually use it. After having taken a few steps to make sure he could walk on it properly, he turned around to face her. 

“What?” Shir asked confused. “Did you not have faith that I could actually fix you?”

“I had my doubts.” Maul replied. Shir scoffed offended and shook her head. By now, she had gotten used to him never thanking her for anything. The human had accepted that it just wasn’t in his nature. 

“So, what’s next on the agenda?” Shir said, almost sarcastically. After facing that creature she had totally forgotten why they were here in the first place. 

“We wanted to get that asset of yours, remember?” Maul replied.

“Oh, right.” Shir mumbled. “Where do you think it is? Someone must’ve taken it, right?” 

Maul was silent and he stroked his chin while thinking. There were a great many possibilities of who could have taken it. Maybe one of the crewmembers, maybe the captain or maybe someone had the same idea (or rather mission) as them. If the Empire wanted the contents of that container, it must be important. And valuable. He couldn’t forget the fact that someone had probably brought those creatures on board, so whoever that was must’ve taken those probes with them. 

“I think we should pay the bridge a visit and inform them what has happened.” Maul said after he finished thinking about his theories. 

“If they find out what we’re here for, they’re going to kill us.” Shir reminded him, not liking this idea one bit. Their first priority was to be stealthy. But then again, that already failed when they got themselves captured the first time. 

“Most of them might already be dead, thanks to those creatures. There might still be a second one aboard, on the upper levels.” Maul said in response. How they were going to deal with that – after all, killing one was already hard enough – he didn’t know. Maybe they didn’t even need to. If they could locate the missing contents of said container before the creature picked up their presence on the ship, there was no need in facing that thing. Maul certainly wasn’t looking forward to fight another. And neither was Shir. 

“Right…” Shir sighed heavily upon realizing this. “Maybe if we take the bridge, we can also contact my client about the situation. I’m sure they’ve been expecting a report ages ago.” It made Shir a little uneasy. She has heard stories about the ruthlessness of the Empire and she certainly didn’t want to end up on their blacklist. It wasn’t as if she was particularly fond of the Empire, but then again, she didn’t like the Galactic Republic either. Governments just sucked in general. But at least they paid well. 

“Hm.” Maul only hummed in agreement. He on the other hand wasn’t too worried about the Empire. To him personally it didn’t pose much of a threat, but that was a lie he told himself. “Let’s move.” The zabrak turned around and walked out of the cargo bay. He has spent enough time on this cursed ship for now and wanted to finish this mission. Shir couldn’t agree more and followed him. 

They eventually found their way back to the elevators. The doors were still left open and the scratch marks on the walls reminded them of their recently defeated foe. Maul stood in the doorway and looked up the shaft. The bridge was at the very top he assumed. Climbing was going to take far too much time. Leaping up with the Force was a much faster way. But how was Shir going to follow him? 

“So what’s your plan on getting up there?” Shir said behind him. 

“Jump.” Maul simply replied after turning around to face her. Shir raised a brow at him and crossed her arms. Then she remembered the weird magical powers he possessed with which he could easily leap through the air and jump thirty meters or more.

“Great.” Shir answered sarcastically. “And how do you propose I get up there without falling to my death?” She made a gesture to accompany her words with. Maul was tempted to say something amongst the lines of ‘figure it out yourself’ but he decided not to. But what should he say instead? He couldn’t exactly carry her – not that he wasn’t strong enough, but it would limit his agility. And besides, he needed his hands to hold onto something to not plunge back down the shaft. 

Shir just shook her head. She grabbed her blaster, attached something from her belt to it and stepped beside him into the doorway. The human turned her head to look up into the shaft. The actual elevator must still be stuck in the shaft somewhere, probably at the very top. She pointed her blaster up and shot a cable into the shaft. After a second or two it attached itself to the bottom of the cabin. Shir gave it a few strong tugs to make sure it was attached securely, before mounting the other end to her belt. 

“How convenient.” Maul mumbled.

“Well, you first then.” She gestured up. The zabrak rolled his eyes before jumping up into the shaft. Swiftly he leaped from wall to wall further up into the shaft. He just couldn’t resist showing off at least a little. As much as Shir enjoyed watching him, she actually had no time to watch. By enabling the winding mechanism she followed him up into the elevator shaft. With her legs against the wall she walked up against the wall. 

Eventually both of them reached the elevator. Maul was hanging onto the walls under it, ignited his lightsaber and cut a hole through the bottom of the cabin. He hung his weapon back on his belt and jumped through the hole. After some struggling Shir followed him through the hole and they were standing in the elevator, staring at closed doors. The control panel next to it were dark, a sign that the power still hadn’t returned yet.

“After you.” She gestured at the doors before grabbing her blasters. Maul shook his head slightly, ignited his lightsaber to cut the edges of the doors and pushed the doors open with the use of the Force. The two metal pieces flew through the room behind it and hit two men with a loud thud. They weren’t getting up anymore. The pair was now staring at the surprised and rather shocked faces of the Haxion Brood on the bridge. Surprisingly none of them were dead yet.

Maul stepped out of the elevator into the room. 

“We’ve come to talk.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: This chapter is very graphic.

“What are you waiting for? Blast them!” The captain of the Haxion Brood cruiser shouted and pointed at the zabrak and human. Last time he saw them they were caught and safely put in a cell. What happened in the meantime? Really though, the order to shoot them was a reflex, more like a panic move. He didn’t really want to kill them, but oh, it was too late now. Whatever. 

The crewmembers on the bridge needed a second or two to process the orders of their captain, which gave Maul enough time to grab and ignite his lightsaber. He spun the two crimson blades around and easily deflected the blasts. Meanwhile Shir took cover behind him. But she wasn’t useless of course; with her two blasters in her hands she swiftly took out one crewmember after the other. Eventually Maul just used the Force to pull the blasters out of the hands of the few surviving Haxion Brood members and sliced them in half in one motion.

“Enough of that.” He said, calmly but in a threatening tone. Their opponents looked rather shocked at the sudden action of the zabrak. They didn’t move and just stared at them. What else could they do against a Force sensitive? Quite frankly, they were shocked those still existed, since the word had spread all of them had perished in recent events. 

Shir stepped next to Maul and looked at the damage they had caused. They took out about a third of the people in the room. Some members of them were kneeling down, being injured. The deflected blasts caused some major damage to the controls. Screens were damaged if not broken completely. Sparks flew across some of the control panels and she could clearly see a few holes in the walls. She really hoped the ship would still be steerable once the engines were back on. 

“What do you want?” The captain asked. Maul turned his lightsaber off and stepped towards him. 

“We would like to know what happened to the contents of a certain container in your cargo area.” Maul explained in what seemed to be the calmest he had been since boarding this ship. “Which one was it again?” He looked at Shir. 

“Unit 1-33B; white container. Medium size.” She stated in a matter of fact voice. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The captain answered in response. Maul narrowed his eyes and huffed. He was running out of patience. One blade of the lightsaber was ignited once more and he held it under the man’s throat without losing eye contact. 

“You will tell us everything you know about that containment unit, including where you found it.” He snarled. His yellow eyes lit up and it made him all the more dangerous. Mmh yes, he could sense the fear inside the man; he could almost smell it. Maul planned on using his Force abilities to get the information that he needed, but there was no need for that. Even Shir could see it in the captain’s eyes. That man was terrified to death and would voluntarily tell them anything. 

“I-I don’t know much!” He held up his hands, one of which was made of cybernetics. They were trembling. “Boss’ sent us to attack an imperial convoy and to get everything we could from the ship.” Maul leaned in a little closer, outing his interest in the man’s story. He could also hear how his voice was shaking. How pathetic. “I have no idea what’s in there… or, was!” 

“You haven’t taken it yourself then?” Shir now asked as she stepped beside the man, pointing a blaster at his head. “Because that container is empty.” 

“I haven’t! I haven’t left the bridge since the attack!” The Haxion Brood captain very quickly explained and was shaking with his hands; his eyes wide open. Maul removed his lightsaber from the man’s throat and took a step back. It was evident this man was clueless about what they were after. Shir however, didn’t remove her blaster. The bounty hunter was still frustrated with the asset not being where it should be, which made this job even harder. She had the strong urge to blast the guy into oblivion. 

“Well.” Maul folded his hands behind his back. “It may interest you to know that your ship has been infiltrated – not just by us. But by another party, who also smuggled some very dangerous and hard to kill creatures on board.” His gaze scanned the room to see the reaction of the other crewmembers. They looked equally terrified as their captain. And here he thought the Haxion Brood was going to be a rather worthy opponent to fight with their bounty droids and cybernetically enhanced members. What a disappointment. 

“What do you mean?” He heard the caption ask behind him. 

“Have you not noticed the power went out? The engines are down.” Maul stated without turning around. By doing so he clearly demonstrated that now he was the one in control. It was something he had experience with throughout the years.

“Of course I have. I sent three engineers down there to check it out. They’ve failed to report in.” The captain answered.

“Maybe that’s because a creature of unknown origin has ripped them to shreds.” Shir explained with impatience in her voice and pressed the gun against the captain’s head. The man in response let out a soft gasp. After hearing that, the room was engulfed in silence. Maul used this moment to look at each of the members still standing. All eyes were pointed at him, in anticipation of what he’d do next. While slowly pacing through the room, he tried to sense the slightest disturbance in their behaviour; maybe it could give away a clue. But there wasn’t anything. Only fear. Maul turned around to look at the captain again.

Before the zabrak could say anything, the silence was broken by a few loud bangs coming from the lower levels of the cruiser. Shortly after the entire ship was shaking so hard, it almost threw them off balance and onto the ground. Shir and Maul remained standing, even if they needed to stretch out their arms to keep their balance. Suddenly they heard a siren go off and the ship shook once more. It almost sounded like something exploded. A light on the screen controls started blinking. Then another screen was making noise and gave off a warning. Shir took a quick look at them and grunted frustrated. 

“Complete engine failure.” She stated. “We’re leaking fuel and might’ve lost a thruster or two. Emergency power is running low and already failed on the lower decks.” She then proceeded to check the other screen. Her eyes widened as she looked through the cockpit window onto an incoming planet. “The ship is caught in the planet’s gravitational field and without having control over the ship… We’re most definitely going to crash.” And she said it in such a way it was clear that a crash meant certain death.

“We’re wasting our time here.” Maul muttered. He wanted to say something more, but an all too familiar sound made its way up through the elevator shaft. Something was climbing upwards. It sent his heart racing as he recognized it; he could sense its presence again and in terror his theory from before was confirmed. Slowly he turned his head towards the elevator; wrapping his hand around his lightsaber. Shir noticed his behaviour and knew what was coming for them as well; she quickly pointed her blasters at the doors. 

However, the Haxion Brood members had no idea what was happening. In anticipation they all stared at the broken elevator entrance instead of attacking the two bounty hunters, who were now also distracted by the sound. The banging was terrifying. Maul sensed their fear growing. Shir didn’t need Force powers to do that, she could see it in their faces. But, she realized how her own pulse was rising now too. The two of them knew what was crawling through that shaft. Maul tried his best to formulate a plan to escape, but his mind just wasn’t working fast enough.

Then the sound suddenly stopped. Neither Maul nor Shir took their eyes off the elevator opening. 

“Listen…” The captain started. “I don’t know what game you’re playing, but-” Just as he wanted to continue, another creature, like the one Shir and Maul defeated before, jumped through the bottom of the elevator cabin onto the bridge and howled loudly. It leaped forward and didn’t lose much time to attack its first victim, standing closest to its position. In terror all present watched how the beast dug its teeth into the man’s metal arm, ripped it out of its socket, pulling wires and organic tissue with it – and of course lots of blood. The man screamed in pain and fell onto the floor. The creature devoured the metal with a few bites and now went straight for the man’s torso with its claws. It ripped open the chest of its victim and blood splattered across the entire room. 

“What are you standing there?! KILL IT!!” The captain yelled. The crewmembers took out whatever weapon they still had, and hadn’t been destroyed by the zabrak moments before, and opened fire. The beast howled and hurled its strong tail around to catapult some droids through the room. The spikes on its back were standing up straight again, revealing the giant sail on its back, as it attacked one member after the other. Screams of horror and pain filled the bridge. The men and women of the Haxion Brood were trying to do their best to evade the creature, but with the limited space this was a hard task. 

As soon as Shir saw that creature, she froze. Her pulse was raising and only when she heard the captain yell, she came to her senses and opened fire. She ducked to avoid the incoming tail and took some cover behind a control console. Not that it really helped her, but in her mind it did. Without really thinking she kept firing and didn’t notice she was slowly running out of ammunition, thanks to their previous encounter with the creature’s twin.

Maul had watched too, how the creature brutally ripped that man apart. It had left him stunned for a moment. But at least he could easily evade the creature’s attacks. However, due to the lack of space there was no way he had an actual fighting chance, even with his Force abilities. 

Suddenly Maul noticed something in the stance of the creature; behaviour he had seen the previous creature do as well. It lowered itself on its front paws, as if it was getting ready to jump. Quickly, Maul threw himself on the floor, cowering behind another console. Just as he had anticipated, the creature launched the spikes on its sides through the room. Some of which impaled a few bounty droids and another member of the crew, right through the head. Blood splattered across the room before the woman dropped dead right next to Maul. He scrunched up his nose; he hadn’t witnessed such brutality in awhile. Other spikes hit a few more members in the arms and were pinned to the walls. The screams of the victims were almost deafening. Maul looked over the edge of the console he used as cover. The blasts fired at the beast were barely doing any damage as he expected. Men and women were running around, trying to evade the swinging tail of the creature. Eventually, it made its way to one of the members pinned to the wall and started pulling it in half. Blood and guts spilled across the floor. Maul felt how his stomach got turned around just watching the scene. They needed to get out of this death trap. If they didn’t, they for sure were going to get eaten. And the only way out was through the elevator.

“Shir!” He tried getting her attention, but the air was filled with the sound of metal and bones cracking, screams of terror and the growling of the beast. Maul watched how one member after the other was getting bitten into tiny pieces, even the droids. Pieces of metal flew through the air and the floor was almost completely covered in blood. So were the walls and windows. This was a massacre and he didn’t plan on being part of it. So when Shir didn’t react to him, he simply decided to Force pull her towards him. 

Shir, who had also witnessed the gruesome scenes, was fuelled by fear. She did not want to end up like those poor bastards! Thus she was still focused on shooting the beast and evading its tail as good she could. She gasped in surprise when she was suddenly pulled away from the scene. A warm hand grabbed her arm but she didn’t have time to look back and see what was going on. Her mind wasn’t processing it anyways, since her eyes were fixed on the terror that took place in front of them. 

“We need to escape while that thing is preoccupied with slaughtering them.” She suddenly heard Maul say. She needed a few more moments to process this. Her mind wasn’t working in the pace she was used to, but eventually she nodded. The two of them made their way to the elevator. There was no time to climb. 

Maul stared into the dark abyss of the shaft and took a deep breath. Then he jumped down and hit the wall one level below. The collision made him grunt in pain and he held onto a pipe with his hands. Quickly he tried to find something to stand on, before his body weight would drag him down too much. He turned his head and saw a pair of elevator doors on the other side of the shaft. He stretched out his hand and pushed them open with the Force. The he jumped from the wall, across the shaft and through the newly created doorway. Quickly the zabrak got on his feet and looked up the shaft. He could still hear the blasterfire and screams of the ones being slaughtered. At the top he could also see Shir. She looked terrified. 

“Jump!” He shouted. “I’ll use the Force to catch you!” He realized that idea sounded crazy, especially since it involved a great deal of trust and if he was honest, who would want to trust a Sith. Maul saw how Shir hesitated. It wasn’t just the trust thing, but she was also going to free-fall into the abyss. However, everything was better then getting eaten alive, right? 

That was what Shir thought as well. She looked behind her for a moment and then back into the abyss. Eventually she mustered up the last of her courage and jumped down. Maul stretched out his hand and caught her with the Force in mid-air before pulling her back up. Once in range, Shir grabbed his hand and climbed through the door opening. She was breathing heavily, fear still eminent on her face. The screams from the bridge were fading and soon it was quiet again. Both of them looked up. 

“I think it’s done slaughtering those poor souls.” Shir mumbled. She didn’t even notice how badly her hands were shaking. Her heart was pounding against her chest and her knees were trembling. She had to hold onto the doorway with one hand. There was something wet on her face, but she paid no attention to it.

“We best move quickly.” Maul said and looked at her after a few moments. “It’s bad enough we have to worry about another of those creatures, but this entire ship is going to crash into that planet. We need to find your asset fast and get out of here.” 

Shir nodded. Getting off the ship without it wasn’t an option. Returning to the Empire empty handed would mean death either way.


	11. Chapter 11

“What are we going to do when that creature gets down here?” Shir almost whispered as she and Maul were walking through the corridors of the first deck. Earlier she needed a few moments to recover from the brutality she witnessed on the bridge. She had to get her body back under control and stop her legs from shaking. How Maul seemed unaffected by the entire scene was a mystery to her. Interestingly enough he didn’t say anything about her behaviour, even though she was certain he could sense her fear. Not that she was complaining, she might’ve just punched him or something if he had, since the adrenaline was still pumping through her veins.

So far, nothing indicated that the creature had followed them down here. That was good. But they were still left with the problem of finding whoever took the contents of that container before the ship would crash into the planet or that creature found them.

“If the creature gets down here.” Maul corrected her and kept his gaze in front of them. “It’s vital that we find what we came here for, before that thing comes after us.” 

“Yeah and before the entire ship crashes into the planet.” Shir mumbled. Speaking of which, the ship made a few more rumbling noises and shook heavily. Shir and Maul tumbled, eventually finding their balance again and leaning against the wall for stability.

“This is pointless.” Maul muttered in annoyance. “We need a plan. Walking around the hallways in hopes to find whoever knows what happened to your asset takes too much time. Time, which we simply do not have.” He stroked his chin again as he wondered what they could do. Shir silently agreed. The ship was huge and with that thing on the loose it became even more dangerous to roam around without a clear goal. 

“Hey, wait a second.” Shir suddenly said and tugged his sleeve. Maul looked at her. “Whoever stole that asset is probably wanting to get off this ship just as badly as we do. The only way is through the escape pods, right?” 

“Either that or our ship.” Maul nodded. 

“None of the pods have been launched yet, at least when I last checked they weren’t.” They stared at each other.

“We have to hurry!” 

Shir nodded and both of them started running. Shir tried desperately to remember where the escape pods were located. Luckily the layout of every bigger ship was roughly the same and coincidentally the escape pods were on the same level they were on. She led them through the corridors till eventually they had reached the room with the escape pods. They were all still there. The temptation to just get into one of them and leave this place was big. But she resisted. 

“None of them are missing.” Shir stated as she checked the status of the pods. “Which means our thief is still on board.” She didn’t think the thief knew about her own ship or where it was. She was rather worried what would become of it. Somehow she got the feeling that it wasn’t going to be in one piece after this was over. 

“What I don’t understand is why the thief hasn’t left the ship earlier.” Maul thought out loud. Shir looked at him and shrugged. “Nor why he took those probes.” He added in a softer voice. Impatiently he was pacing up and down the room until he heard something coming from the corridor. He stopped and looked into the dark hallway. Shir heard it too and stepped next to him to see what it was.

Footsteps were rapidly coming closer. It sounded like someone was running towards them. Shir grabbed her blasters and pointed them at the hallway. But the ship decided to rumble again, this time heavier than before and this time the two of them couldn’t remain standing. The force of the ship being pulled down by the planet made them fall onto the floor. Maul suddenly saw someone appearing through the hallway, coming towards him. Quickly he jumped back on his feet and looked at a human woman with two cybernetic arms. She was holding something close to her torso. The woman looked shocked, since she didn’t expect anyone to block her path of escape. 

“You must be our thief.” Maul stated. The woman quickly grabbed her blaster and pointed it at Maul. Shir meanwhile had gotten up and also pointed her guns at the stranger. Neither of them said anything for a moment. 

“It’s not stealing if you take it from thieves, is it?” The woman commented after a minute or two.

“Well either way, you’ve got something we want.” Shir replied and gestured at the small case she was holding. The woman looked at it before turning her gaze back onto Maul and Shir. 

“You have no idea what this is do you?” There was accusation to be heard in her voice. 

“I don’t care much about what it is.” Shir’s patience was running thin and Maul could definitely hear anger in her voice. “If I don’t get that back to my client, I’m not getting paid.” 

The woman just scoffed. “A bounty hunter then? All you care about is money! Do you know what will happen if this falls into the hands of the Empire? They’ll make a weapon out of it to terrorize their enemies and crush all hope we have!” Her words made Shir think for a moment. What if this woman was right? If this were true, she would be responsible for whatever the Empire wanted to cause with that thing. Could she really take such a responsibility? But if she didn’t bring what they wanted, she was most certainly going to die herself. Well, they were all going to die anyway if they didn’t get off this ship.

For a moment none of them said anything and they could hear the ship rumble again. The ship shook another time. The three tumbled for a moment before finding their balance again. Shir knew they were running out of time. And so did Maul, who was also running out of patience. They exchanged a short look with each other before turning back to their captive.

“I’m sorry, but I’m getting of this ship!” The woman suddenly said and opened fire at them. Shir wanted to shoot back, but she hadn’t noticed she had run out of ammunition earlier. As a reflex she held up her arms and prepared to be hit by the blaster shots. But she didn’t… 

Maul had stepped in front of her and deflected the shots with the power of the Force. There had been no time to ignite his lightsaber. Then he stretched out his hand and gripped the Force tight around the woman’s neck. She was choking and trying to breathe, with one hand around her neck, trying to loosen the invisible strings that weren’t actually there. Shir was rather impressed and intimidated that he could deflect blaster fire with his bare hands. What else could he do she didn’t know of?

“My patience is running thin.” Maul grumbled as he walked closer to the woman. “You are going to hand over that case and tell us what its content is.” He had gotten rather curious about it now. If whatever was inside was really as dangerous as the woman put it, maybe they shouldn’t hand it to the Empire. What if he kept it and used it for his own purposes instead? 

Shir walked over to him and while the woman was struggling to breathe, she grabbed the case from her arms, encountering little resistance from her. Carefully she opened it. Inside were four slots for test tubes, but only one tube was present and filled with a strange green gas. Shir gritted her teeth and in anger she closed the case again. 

“Where are the rest of them?!” She shouted at the woman. After realizing she couldn’t talk, thanks to Maul choking her, she turned to the zabrak. “Let her go.” She demanded. After some hesitation Maul eventually complied and removed his grip. The woman coughed and gasped for air, sinking to her knees. She was breathing heavily. Shir didn’t give her a moment to recover and grabbed her by her collar. “What have you done with the other tubes?!” She shouted again, her voice being filled by anger. “Tell me!!” She shook the woman, but she wasn’t answering. Instead she looked at Shir with a disgusting grin on her face. Shir gave out a frustrated shout and threw her on the ground. 

“She won’t talk, I might as well kill her then.” She muttered in anger and pointed her gun at her, totally forgetting she had no ammunition left. But Maul lowered her arm. 

“She doesn’t have to talk.” He simply said, but somehow his words sounded far more threatening that they should. Their captive heard the undertone as well and now looked up in fear. Shir looked at the Sith and raised a brow. “Her mind will speak.” Maul said with a soft grumble and went through his knees to be on the same eye level as the woman. “Or it will break.” He stretched out his hand in front of her face and forced himself into her mind. 

The woman struggled, seemingly in pain. “No!” She shouted and shook her head heavily. “Stop!” She almost screamed. But Maul showed no signs of pity. He narrowed his eyes and dug deeper, browsing her mind to find the answers they seek. The deeper he went, the more painful it became. The woman started screaming louder and begged for him to stop. Shir watched, rather horrified at the abilities he possessed. She wasn’t quite sure what was going on; only that it was very painful for their victim. It looked terrifying as well and she made a mental note not to get on his bad side. 

Eventually the woman dropped onto the floor, unconscious. Maul stood up straight again and looked at the bounty hunter next to him. 

“She hid the rest of the tubes on this level.” He simply said. Shir was perplexed and just stared at him. But the sudden noise of the ship almost breaking apart and the shaking made her unfreeze. On top of everything they heard the same banging coming down the elevator shaft. The beast was on the move.

“We’ve gotta hurry! I don’t know how much time we still have.” Shir said quickly. “Plus I ran out of ammo.”

“Follow me.” Maul replied and started running. Shir followed him into the dark of the corridors.


	12. Chapter 12

The stability on the ship had been lost by now. It was too damaged to remain in a stable flight path. It was trembling and it made walking and running through its corridors even harder than before. The sirens were howling loudly as Maul and Shir made their way through the narrow corridors of the first deck. Maul knew where to go. He had seen the spot where the woman hid the rest of the test tubes in her mind. While making their way there, it really felt like the ship was being pulled apart by the planet’s gravitation. 

“How long do you reckon we have?” Maul asked Shir over the noise of the alarm. Shir did her best to remain on her feet, sometimes having to lean against the walls. 

“I really have no idea. But judging from our current situation, not very long. That planet must have a huge gravitational pull! We have to get off this ship, before it enters the atmosphere, otherwise it will be ripped apart!” Shir lost her balance, when the ship shook heavily once more and fell on the ground. If it wasn’t in space, it almost felt like it crashed into a big mountain or something. 

Maul quickly helped her back on her feet and they continued their mission. “Once we have those tubes, we have to make a break for the ship.” Maul said while dragging her along. However, getting to where they needed to be proved to be a lot more difficult than anticipated. The ship, having lost most of its integrity, started to give into the gravitational pull and began to fall apart on the inside. Every now and then a stabilizing beam would come crashing down from the ceiling. One of them almost hit Shir, if Maul hadn’t Force-pushed her out of the way. 

Eventually, after much falling and evading collapsing ceiling parts, they reached the hiding spot. Maul inspected the wall and saw a panel in the damaged metal wall. Without losing time, he used the Force to rip it open. Thank the stars! The test tubes were actually there! He never doubted his abilities to read people’s minds, but under the stress of the current situation he could’ve done a mistake. 

“Give me the case!” He ordered Shir, who obliged. Quickly he grabbed the fragile glass tubes out of the wall and put them in the case, before closing it and giving it back to Shir. “Let’s get out of here.” Shir nodded in agreement and they hurried back to their ship, which they had docked on the same level. However, the moment they walked around the corner they were greeted by the creature from the bridge. 

“Watch out!” Maul shouted, grabbing Shir by her arm and pulled her back around the corner before the creature could attack them. Taken by surprise, Shir couldn’t hold onto the case and it slipped out of her hands. As it hit the floor, it opened and one of the tubes fell out. 

“The tubes!” Shir yelled. Maul now looked around the corner to see one glass tube rolling over the floor; the creature was lurking behind it. It had spotted him. There was no time to think or talk. Quickly he stood up and with both hands he Force-pushed the creature as far back as he could. But the beast dug its claws into the floor and resisted the push. It was only slowly moving backwards. It’s gigantic claws scratched across the floor, making a deafening sound. Shir saw the tube rolling around and leaped forward, trying to grab it. In that moment, the ship leaned towards the side, and the test tube rolled with it. Shir missed it by just and inch. At least she managed to grab the case and quickly closed it, securing the rest of the valuable tubes. 

As she tried another attempt into grabbing the flask, a supporting beam came crushing down and landed right on top of it. Shir heard the glass crack and only saw a bit of green gas escape through the pieces of metal. “Shit!” She cursed. “It’s broken.” There was no point in staying here any longer now. “We gotta get out of here!” What she didn’t realize was, how both she and Maul inhaled the gas once it escaped the test tube. 

Suddenly, Shir’s head started to hurt and her vision became blurry. She rubbed her eyes and tried to get up. But the trembling ship made it difficult and thus she just kind of crawled on the floor, towards Maul. Or where she thought Maul was, because when she looked up she didn’t see the zabrak. Instead, there was a monster with yellow eyes and big horns. She gasped in terror and as the monster wanted to reach for her, she kicked its hand away. With all her strength she got on her feet and ran passed it into another hallway. Where the hell did Maul go? She decided to create some distance between herself and the creature, which she heard howling behind her. 

Maul’s vision too started to blur and his head hurt. Eventually he noticed Shir was gone. Confused he looked around and forgot about the creature for a moment, loosening his grip on it. A vital mistake. The creature now charged at him, head-butted him right in the chest and he soared through the hallway, hitting the cold floor with his back. The zabrak grunted in pain and only slowly could get up on his feet. He expected to see the creature there, but it wasn’t the creature. Instead, it appeared to be a giant spider-ish beast. Did he just imagine it or was that actually what the creature looked like? No, he definitely remembered the monster from before to only have four legs, not eight! What was going on here?! 

There wasn’t much time to think. The monster attacked him with one of its many legs or claws, or whatever they were. Maul did his best to evade the attack; the claws dug into the metal wall next to him and he could see the gaping holes that it left. He ignited his lightsaber to defend himself and blocked the incoming attacks, however couldn’t succeed in cutting its limbs off. His head was throbbing and his vision was vague. He could barely see the incoming attacks, making it harder for him to defend himself. While trying to survive he started to put the loose ends together. What was their plan again? Oh, right, escape! He needed to find Shir – she had the case – and get off the ship. 

Shir on the other hand, still pestered by strange visions, was wandering through the hallways in search of the zabrak. She called his name a few times, but almost couldn’t utter a sound. The noise of the alarm penetrated her head and it was too much to bear in combination with the terrible headache she experienced. Her vision was blurry and distorted at the edges. Her heartbeat was rising fast and she could feel how she started to sweat uncontrollably. Her legs became heavier and due to the rumbling ship she couldn’t walk anymore. Eventually she collapsed onto the floor, the case dropped out of her hand. She saw it lying in front of her and stretched out her arm to grab it. Grunting she tried her best to reach for it. Her fingers touched the black metal but couldn’t get a grip of it. Just a little more… With the last of her strength she grabbed it and pulled it close to her. Breathing heavily she lied on the floor. Now what? She couldn’t remain here. She needed to find Maul. Where did he go? What happened to her? Why were there two monsters? Her thoughts were scattered and she could feel her body get weaker.

But a familiar scream kept her from falling unconscious. The scream belonged to the metal eating creature! She remembered how it attacked her and Maul and after that everything was vague. But the danger was real. She grunted and got on her knees before standing up again. Slowly she tumbled forward to get away from it. She looked back over her shoulder, eyes feeling tired. Her legs barely supported her weight. Then she saw something turn around the corner. It was that weird red monster from before. She started to panic, trying to go faster but her legs just wouldn’t cooperate. Still looking behind, she didn’t see the debris in front of her, tripped and once more fell onto the ground. Quickly she turned around. The monster had already caught up with her and was bending over her. 

“No!” She screamed and covered herself with her arms the best she could. It was a poor defence. “Get away!” She felt how something grabbed her arm. Desperately she tried to free herself, but whatever was holding her wouldn’t let go. The panic and fear grew, until she eventually had no strength left anymore. But the monster that grabbed her didn’t do anything. No, it was… shaking her? As if it was trying to bring her to her senses.

“Shir!” She heard a familiar voice. “Get yourself under control!” Was that… Maul? But how...? And where? Slowly she removed the arms from her face to see who it was. Her vision was still a bit blurry, but now she took a closer look at whoever was hovering over her. After blinking a few more times she finally recognized the zabrak – very vaguely – instead of the monster she saw before.

“What…?” She mumbled, still disorientated. 

“It’s the gas!” Maul just shouted and pulled her on her feet. “It’s affecting your senses.” How were they ever going to reach the ship in time with the creature hunting them and the star cruiser about to crash into the planet? He needed to hurry, Shir was in a bad shape and he guessed an antidote was within that case. But first things first: get away from the creature. He supported her the best way he could and started to make his way down the hallway towards their ship. 

The journey there was immensely difficult with the unstable ship and having to support a bounty hunter. All while still being hunted by the creature Maul hurried down the corridor with the last strength he had left. In these desperate moments he remembered his training and focused on his rage and anger for strength – not in the Force, but physical strength. Maul tumbled from side to side while the ship was being pulled down into the planet. His mind and vision still hadn’t fully recovered from the gas’ effects, but it was good enough. 

The creature howled behind them and was closing in. At least the unstable flight path of the ship made it difficult for the creature to follow them. Maul threw whatever he could find at the creature’s head – which still looked like a giant spider. Finally, after turning around a corner he saw the hatch they had entered the ship through and where they docked their own spacecraft. Meanwhile Shir had regained some of her strength and could walk by herself again. 

“Get into the ship!” Maul commanded. He saw how the creature turned around the corner and wanted to attack them. The zabrak once again pushed it back with the use of the Force, but even his strength was now dwindling. Shir meanwhile, climbed up the ladder and through the hatch into their ship – which was still there, thank the stars! The rumbling and shaking made it hard to get into the cockpit, but she eventually managed. Through the window she saw that the star cruiser had already entered the atmosphere and it became even more unstable now. The nose of the big ship was already burning. They needed to detach right now or there was no escape. 

“Maul! Get inside!” She shouted at the top of her lungs, doing her best to get through to him over the loud alarms.

Maul was still trying to keep the creature from coming after them. He needed to let it go in order to get into the ship. All while his mind not being back to its normal state. It was hard to concentrate while experiencing these hallucinations. He grunted and withdrew his grip of the beast, turning around to run towards the hatch. Of course the creature sprinted after him, mouth wide open. It stretched out one paw and with its claw scratched Maul’s arm just when he jumped through the hatch. The cut was deep and started bleeding badly. The zabrak, now in the ship, quickly closed the hatch. 

“Go!” He shouted at Shir in the cockpit. 

Shir quickly detached them from the star cruiser and tried desperately to get the engines to work. “Come on!!” She shouted. Without the engines, the ship was falling uncontrollably through the atmosphere. The physical forces of the ship swirling around in circles made it hard for Shir to remain in her seat. Eventually, she managed to turn the engines on and stabilize the spacecraft. Through the cockpit window she saw the star cruiser, or what was left of it, crash into the planet’s surface. 

The surface!! It was coming closer rapidly fast.

“Shit!” She cursed and pulled the ship up, but it wasn’t fast enough. On top of everything she needed to dodge some debris that was falling from the bigger ship. Shir had no idea where Maul was, she just hoped he was actually on the ship. Right now her mind was focused on landing the spacecraft somewhere. When she realized that a normal landing wasn’t an option, she braced herself for a crash. 

“Hold onto something!” She shouted towards the cargo area, where she presumed Maul still was after getting on the ship. Through the cockpit window she saw the ground coming closer. By pushing buttons and keeping a steady course, she tried her best to keep the ship stable. Eventually, it crashed into the ground, slid forward through the dirt, crashing into trees until it eventually came to a standstill in front of a crystal blue lake. The impact of the collision made her bend forward before the forces threw her back in her seat. The cockpit window was cracked and covered in dirt. Shir panted heavily, trying to calm her heart rate before it would explode. Her face was covered in sweat and when she wiped her forehead, she also took some blood with it – luckily not her own. 

“Holy shit…” She mumbled, still recovering from the impact. All sorts of warning systems were blinking and making noise. Shir’s hands were still wrapped around the steering controls, almost cramped into position. Eventually, she managed to slowly let go and take a first look at the damage. It looked bad. She pressed some more buttons to turn of the annoying sounds and the flashing lights. At least they were on the ground now and alive.

Then she suddenly remembered the zabrak. “Maul!” Quickly, she got up. Trying to stand on her shaking legs was difficult; walking was even harder. But she made it into the cargo bay, where she found the Sith lying on his back and holding his arm. A dark patch had formed on his robes. 

“Maul!” She quickly knelt down beside him. He gritted his teeth while still holding his arm. “What happened?” She asked concerned, trying to inspect the wound. 

“The creature...” He muttered under his breath. 

Shir didn’t lose any time and ripped his robes so she could inspect the wound. “You’re losing a lot of blood.” And with only half a body, he only had half the amount of blood of a normal person left. Quickly, Shir gathered what she needed from a nearby medipack to stop the bleeding. She tied a piece of fabric very tightly around his upper arm to cut off the blood stream. Then she pressed some patches on the wound and applied more pressure to stop the bleeding before she stuck a bacta patch on top of it. Hopefully that would hold until they could get better treatment for him. 

After everything was done, she lied down next to him and panted heavily. Her body was exhausted and so was her mind. Maul didn’t feel much better. He could still feel the sting in his arm, but it was getting less, thank kriff! Both of them were panting and tried to calm themselves. 

Eventually, Maul sat up and looked at her. Her face was pale, still covered in blood and sweat. Her armour and clothes were equally stained in blood and oil from the slaughtered Haxion Brood members. He must’ve looked the same. 

“Are you… alright?” He asked softly. 

“Yeah…” Shir panted. “I think so.” She slowly sat up and ran one hand through her hair. “This is by far the worst job I’ve ever had.” She mumbled after rubbing her head. Finally her vision was back to normal. The effects of the gas must’ve worn off. “What the hell happened…? What kind of stuff is in those tubes?” She looked at him as if he had all the answers. Shir didn’t expect him to know, but he did anyway. 

“The gas affects the brain and eyes. It distorts your vision and changes what you see into something terrifying.” He answered. It made sense, since that is exactly what he experienced. Shir’s eyes widened. That would explain her experiences as well. 

“How… how do you know?” She asked.

“I saw it in that woman’s mind. She knew, for whatever reason.” 

The two of them looked at each other and without uttering a word, they agreed that the Empire couldn’t get their hands on this terrifying weapon. Because, once the government of an entire galaxy was in the possession of something this dangerous, who knew what they were going to use it for.


	13. Chapter 13

“How bad is it?” Maul asked Shir, who was still busy in the engine room. While she had gone down there to inspect the damage, he waited on top, sitting on the floor and looked down through the hatch. Shir grunted and looked up at him. 

“Bad.” She sighed frustrated and climbed up the ladder to face him, removing her goggles. “The hyper drive is busted, flight stabilisers are completely broken. Navigational computer is heavily damaged. The fuel tank has a leak and the engines are heavily damaged. I have no idea how I’m going to repair all of this without proper tools or spare parts.” 

Maul sighed. That was indeed bad news. “So in other words, we’re stuck here?” 

“Yeah, unless you can somehow tell the Force to fix my ship.” Shir replied and sat down on the ridge of the hatch next to him, legs hanging down. Her body was still a little shaky from all the excitement. 

“That’s not how the Force works.” Maul grumbled. “Unfortunately.” It would have been very convenient right now. 

It took the human and the zabrak a good amount of time to recover from the crash and the multiple near death experiences. Their bodies were still pumped by adrenaline of the danger they had been in moments ago. It was hard to get it back under control. They must’ve remained lying on the floor of the small cargo bay for almost half an hour without saying a word. Every muscle was aching. Their brains finally started to process the pain of the injuries they suffered while escaping and fighting. Maul had to help Shir to patch up some of her injuries, once the two of them got enough strength back.

Eventually they decided to inspect the damage of the ship. Shir had decided to check out the engine rooms in the belly of the ship, while Maul had taken a look outside. The outer shell looked almost as bad as the inside. The metal was heavily damaged, shattered and had burn marks on it. Some pieces were missing completely; other had giant holes on it. The thrusters at the back were deformed and he could clearly see the hyperfuel leaking out of the ship and into the soil of the planet. Some big trees had fallen on top of the ship, causing further damage on top. With a sigh Maul had gone back inside to give the damage report to Shir. 

“Great.” Shir uttered defeated and threw her arms up in the air before lying down on her back. “We’ve got the asset but no means of getting it to the client. My ship is trash and everything hurts. Ugh, I hate this job!” She covered her face with her dirty hands. “I swear this is the last time I’m doing a job for the Empire! It’s a complete nightmare.” She added and sighed heavily. 

Maul only nodded in silence. He could understand her frustrations; he shared them to some extent. But giving up now wasn’t an option. If they survived two nearly invincible, metal-eating creatures on a ship that was on a collision course into a planet, they could somehow find a way to get off this rock. Sadly, his mind wasn’t working at its best, due to everything that had happened. He tried his damn hardest to think of something, but he couldn’t come up with anything. However, he believed that in time, an opportunity would present itself. 

“Are you still going to give the case to the Empire?” he asked her instead. Shir removed her hands from her face to look at him. 

“I mean, I don’t want to. But I kind of have to… Right?” She sighed and sat up with a groan. “If I don’t, I don’t get my money and they’re gonna kill me. You of all people should know what they’re capable of.” 

“Yes, I’m very aware.” He mumbled. But even he felt nervous about handing over the contents of that case to his former master and his apprentice, who ruled the galaxy in terror. Not that he himself would’ve ruled it any differently if given the chance… But that was beside the point. 

“And if we don’t hand it to the Empire? What are we going to do with it? Destroy it?” Shir asked clueless. Maul shook his head. 

“We will have to outsmart them.” Carefully he stood up. “Which will be hard, since we don’t know how much information they posses about this item.” He stroked his chin while slowly walking up and down the room. Eventually he stopped next to a surface, on which lay the case with the test tubes. He looked at it for a moment before opening it. Maul noticed that one of the tubes was filled with a blue liquid instead of the green gas. Carefully, he grabbed that specific tube and inspected it. 

“This must be the antidote.” He turned around and held up the tube. Shir raised a brow. 

“Yes, and?” 

“We could hand over the case without the antidote.” He gestured at the tube in his hand. “They can’t use the gas without protecting their own men and would have to make a new one or disregard the weapon altogether.” Even though it wouldn’t surprise him, if Sidious used it anyway, fully aware it was also going to affect his stormtroopers. And there was no doubt the Empire was going to use this gas as a weapon. Shir stood up and looked rather sceptical. 

“That’s never going to work.” She just stated. “They’ll know two tubes are missing and certainly will suspect us, or rather me, of stealing it. I’m not taking that risk.” 

Maul sighed frustrated. She had a good point. He didn’t want her to get killed after all. They needed a better approach. But certainly, handing over the gas without the antidote was better than handing them the entire set. After taking another look at the blue liquid in the tube he put it back into the case and closed it. His head was hurting too much to think of anything better. Maybe he’d have a better idea later.

“You’ll have to explain why one of the tubes is missing anyway.” Maul suddenly said as he turned around. Shir sighed. She hadn’t thought of that yet. It seemed as a sloppy mistake, but given the circumstances she couldn’t really blame herself too much. However, if the Empire saw it the same way was a different thing. 

“I got them what they asked for.” She eventually said. “It’s not like the entire case is empty. If they wanna use it as a super weapon of sorts, I assume they still have enough with those other two.” She shrugged. “Or I just tell them that’s the way I found it. Or it was lost in the crash or something, which you know, is kinda true.” 

“I suppose.” Maul mumbled, not being convinced about that suggestion. 

“I’ll think of something. Let’s just first try to get off this planet. Then we’ll worry about the Empire.” She said, but had no idea how to do that. As just stated minutes before, she was unable to repair the damage to the ship with the current tools. 

“And how are you going to do that?” Maul asked, crossing his arms, knowing full well that the ship was beyond repair. 

“I don’t know!” She raised her voice and sounded agitated. Maul could also hear the frustration in her voice. “Look, can you make yourself useful instead of criticizing everything? Do you have any knowledge about repairing space ships? It would go a lot faster, you know.” 

“Sadly not as much as you do.” Maul admitted. He could fly a ship and knew the basics, but that was about it. Shir sighed frustrated and ran her fingers through her hair. She didn’t have the patience to teach him everything right now or ever, really. 

“Great…” She mumbled. “Alright.” She took a deep breath to collect her thoughts. The ship was badly damaged. Thinking about everything at once wasn’t going to help anyone. She needed to think in steps. That was the only way they were going to get out of this mess. She needed to make priorities. “Alright… First I need to close the leak in the fuel tank. Even with a repaired engine, we won’t be going anywhere without fuel.” Maul nodded in agreement. 

“Right, let’s see how bad the outside really is.” Shir said before leaving the room and walking outside. She didn’t have the chance to take a better look at the planet itself. It was a forest planet. The trees were tall with thick stems and had needles instead of leaves. Their ship had crash-landed right in front of a beautiful lake with crystal clear blue water. Behind the spacecraft was a trail of destruction; cut off tree stems and bits and pieces of metal. Shir walked around the ship towards the back and located the leak in the tank. 

“While I fix this, can you remove the trees from the top?” She asked Maul. At least he would be useful. The zabrak nodded and got to work. Using the Force he removed the big branches and half cut off tree stems. Meanwhile, Shir put her goggles back on and used her welding tool to fix the hole in the tank. After that was done she assessed the damage of the thrusters. One of them was beyond repair, the other two could still work. It would be enough to get them into orbit, but not into hyperspace. With some help of the Force-wielding zabrak, they managed get them back into shape. Then they returned back inside and she started to fix what she could in the engine room. 

Maul, not really being of much help, decided to wait in the cockpit. He sat on one of the chairs with one leg pulled up and foot resting on the seating. His headache was starting to fade, which made thinking a lot easier. He stared through the cockpit window at the lake in front of them, still trying to formulate a plan to deceive the Empire, which was very dangerous, he was aware of that. He also figured that his involvement in this mission needed to remain a secret. If Vader or Sidious knew he was involved, they would surely suspect some form of treachery and it would lower their chances in deceiving them a lot. Besides, he could unwillingly bring Shir into grave danger. She had been through hell already on this mission. No need to make it worse. However, he had seen interesting information in that woman’s mind aboard the Haxion Brood ship. Something the Empire would be very much interested in to know and could be used to compensate their mistake. 

“Well… that’s all I could do.” He heard Shir’s voice after the door to the cockpit opened and she walked in. “I doubt she’s gonna be able to take off but… what other options do we have.” She added and sat down on the other chair with a sigh. “I don’t fancy dying out here in the middle of nowhere after surviving hell.”

“Agreed.” Maul mumbled, still lost in thought. He didn’t notice how Shir had brought a medium size container unit with her into the cockpit. Only when he heard the clicking sound of her opening the lid, he turned his head around to look what she was doing. Astonished, he watched how she grabbed two bottles of alcoholic beverage from it. 

“What?” Shir just asked with a bottle in each hand. “It’s my emergency stash.” She handed him one of the bottles. 

“You have a drinking problem.” He muttered but accepted the drink. 

“You have a lot of problems I’m not going to address, because it would take too long.” She simply replied while opening the bottle and took a big sip from it. Ah, that was much better. She was so glad the bottles hadn’t been damaged in the crash. Maul remained silent, knowing she had a point, and just sipped his drink. It did feel nice after enduring so much crap. 

“You got a plan yet on how we’ll outsmart the Empire?” Shir eventually asked, looking at the zabrak. 

“Working on it.” He mumbled, still focused on watching the lake outside. Suddenly he realized something; something Shir had said earlier while they were imprisoned on the star cruiser. “Didn’t you say you needed to check in with your client?” 

“Yeah, but that obviously didn’t work, cause the communication was scrambled.” Shir explained and took another sip. But then she spat it back out when she realized what he meant by that. “The commlink!” She wanted to activate it, but Maul grabbed her arm to stop her from doing so. 

“Wait.” He looked her in the eyes. “I think I’ve found a solution for our dilemma.”


	14. Chapter 14

“Commander?” Shir repeated for the fifth time through the comm-link, but she didn’t get a response. “Damn it, they’re not receiving my signal.” She leaned back into the chair of the cockpit, turning around to face Maul, who was standing behind her. “The long range transmitter must be damaged.” She added and stood up. “Let’s check the communications relay.” Before even getting an answer from the zabrak, she left the cockpit to go outside. 

After Maul had shared his revelation with Shir on how to deal with their dilemma, they decided to contact the Empire. But that turned out to be much harder, since they never got an answer. Shir tried different frequencies but couldn’t get through. And unfortunately there weren’t any imperial convoys nearby. She still felt nervous about this plan, but it was better than nothing. Right now, she tried to focus on getting her communication working again. 

Maul followed Shir outside. She looked up at the top of the ship. “I gotta get up there.” She then looked at Maul. “Care to give me a lift?” Maul took a look at the top too and nodded at her. He stretched out his hand, lifted her up with the Force, elevating her towards the top of the ship. He had to resist the urge to throw her up there, just because. It was a natural instinct. 

Shir held onto the metal of the ship and once on top of it, secured her position. She made her way towards the comm-relay, which was as she assumed damaged. After putting her goggles back on, she grabbed her tools and got to work. Fixing the cables of the device was the least of her worries. Trying to get the antenna back into shape was a bigger challenge. Without the relay being operational she couldn’t contact her client. But then again, she didn’t even know for certain the ship could take off. However, fixing the relay in space wasn’t an option either, so it had to be done anyway. In the worst case scenario, she could always request a pick up.

While she was working, Maul waited on the ground and looked up at the pale blue sky. He could feel his nervousness grow. The plan wasn’t without risk, but nothing ever was. Yet he was confident they could pull it off. They had to. Maul started to pace up and down, trying to ease his nervousness. Most of all he feared for her safety, since she was directly responsible for this mission. His involvement needed to stay secret, as he figured out before. 

“Okay, I think I’m done.” Shir’s voice ripped him out of his thoughts. Maul looked up and could only see her silhouette against the sunlight. “I hope it works.” 

“There’s only one way to find out.” Maul answered. 

Shir backed away and tried to carefully climb towards the edge. But she misplaced her foot and slipped. Desperately she tried to find grip with her hands but her body was sliding down the side of the ship towards the edge. Just when she thought she’d fall down, her movement stopped. Confused, she looked around and noticed she was levitating in mid air. Then she looked down and saw Maul, once again using the Force to save her from falling. It was getting a little humiliating by now. 

“I’m starting to think you’re falling on purpose.” Maul said with a little smirk after he put Shir down on the ground. 

“Shut up.” She mumbled, giving him a small push. “Without me you’d be stuck on this planet.” She walked passed him, back inside the ship.

“Yes, well… Without me you’d be dead by now.” Maul added before he followed her inside. 

Shir didn’t hear his comment. She had already gotten back into the cockpit and activated the communication’s relay. “It’s working.” She smiled happily. “Now we can finally get off this planet.” Just as she wanted to start her transmission, Maul grabbed her wrist and stopped her from doing so. 

“Do not mention my presence or involvement.” His voice was low and almost threatening. Shir raised a brow as she looked at him. 

“Why not?”

“It’s better if they don’t know. For your own sake.” He added and let her wrist go. Then he left the cockpit. Shir was still confused, staring after him for a few seconds before shrugging it off. The human turned towards the controls again and pushed the button to start the transmission. 

“Commander, can you hear me?” She first asked before she saw the flickering holographic image of an imperial officer appear in front of her. Pride was eminent on her face. “I have retrieved the asset.” 

“Your transmission is longer overdue, bounty hunter.” The man replied, not looking too pleased. Suddenly Shir felt her nervousness return, but she hid it well. Doing jobs and deals for the Empire always had been a rather delicate operation and she would definitely refrain from doing so in the near future, especially after this nightmare.

“Apologies.” She cleared her throat, almost wanting to say ‘we’ but biting her tongue. “I ran into some trouble aboard the enemy ship. Communications were jammed and I had no way of contacting you until now.” 

“Show me the asset.” The officer proceeded. Shir nodded and presented him the case. The man looked satisfied. “Excellent. Lord Vader will be most pleased. I will send you our coordinates.” 

“Oh, about that.” Shir quickly said before he could hang up. “My ship’s hyperdrive is damaged. If you want the asset, you’ll have to come to my location instead.” She knew she wasn’t exactly in the position to bargain with the Empire, but this was just a fact. Without hyperdrive she couldn’t jump to light speed and reach them. Shir knew how important this thing was to them so they would have to oblige. Still, there was an uneasy silence between her and the imperial officer. The silence made Shir feel nervous again.

“Very well.” The man on the other end eventually said. “Send us your coordinates in that case. We will despatch a ship.” Shir nodded and wanted to say something more, asking about repairs, but the holoimage already disappeared. “Great.” She mumbled before pressing a button to transmit her location; hopefully they received the coordinates in tact – with a half functioning communication’s relay there could be a chance something went wrong with the transmission. After that was done, she got up and left the cockpit to get Maul. When she couldn’t find him in the cargo bay, she stepped outside and saw him standing at the end of the ramp of her ship. He must’ve heard her coming, since he turned around to greet her.

“Well?” He asked.

“They’re coming to pick us up.” Shir explained and walked down the ramp to meet him. “Now we’ll have to see if this ship can get into orbit.” She explained. Somehow she had counted on a more relieved expression from Maul’s side. But he still looked troubled. “What?” 

“Did they say if Vader was coming?” 

“I don’t know. They didn’t specify, really.” She shrugged. “Does it matter?” 

“It does.” Maul crossed his arms. “I’m waiting here.” Shir stared at him with wide opened eyes. 

“What? This was your plan!” 

“If I go with you, Vader will sense my presence and it would endanger our whole operation. I’m not taking any chances.” He explained, followed by a small sigh. “I will wait here. Once you delivered the case, come back to pick me up.” He didn’t like the idea of staying behind on an uninhabited planet while she flew away to deliver the asset. He was very well aware there was a chance she’d leave him behind. But if it meant that the plan worked and she was save… Then so be it. 

Shir was quiet while she was thinking about his words. It made sense, as far as she could understand. The bounty hunter didn’t have that much knowledge about the Force and its users or about their Force abilities. But it seemed logical to her that Force wielders could feel each other’s presence. How that worked; she had no idea. But he did mention earlier that his involvement needed to stay secret. Maul was very experienced with these kinds of deals and knew a lot more about the Empire than she did. Plus he was familiar with the ways of the Force. Thus she decided to trust his judgement. 

“Fine.” She eventually agreed. 

“Where’s the case?” Maul asked and reached out his hand. Shir gave it to him. He grabbed and opened it to check if everything was in place, before closing it again. “Everything is set.” He said as he gave the case back to Shir. “Be careful around Vader. He’s powerful, do not try to deceive him and tell him exactly what I told you to say.” The intense eye contact emphasized how serious he was about this. It almost scared Shir. 

The human nodded, put the case under her arm and walked back up the ramp into her ship. Once she stood in the doorway she turned around to look at him. “What makes you think I’ll came back for you after I got my payment?” 

“You will.” Maul grinned self-assured. Shir had to chuckle and entered the ship. 

Shortly after, the hatch closed and the engines turned on. Maul took a few steps back to not get trapped in the winds of the thrusters. There was still the unresolved question if the trashed ship was able to fly. So far it was not taking off. The zabrak was getting nervous again. Should they be grounded, the Empire would have to come down to the planet to pick up the asset. Maybe even send a repair crew to fix their ship, or worse they’d have to come with them into orbit. That would complicate their plan so he was hoping Shir managed to repair the spacecraft enough for it to reach orbit. 

But the ship was still not taking off. While watching the scene, he could feel his confidence fade and hopes shatter. Why wasn’t she taking off? Suddenly, the Sith remembered the wrist-comm he had to contact Shir and activated it. 

“What’s wrong?” He asked. 

“I’m not sure. All systems are operational.” Shir replied through the comm-link. “It’s as if the ship is stuck.” Maul took a closer look and could indeed see the bottom of the ship was trapped in vines and other debris from the crash. The engine didn’t have enough power to get it out – or well, it did but then the ship would leap forward and possibly crash into the lake or spin out of control. And it would not survive another crash. For a moment he wondered what he could do. 

“Hold tight.” He said before stretching out his arms. The zabrak closed his eyes and concentrated on the Force around him. He could sense the ship and started to lift it up slowly. Due to his recent injures he hadn’t recovered to his full strength yet, but he managed to free the spacecraft. Once it was high enough in the air, he released his grip on it and tumbled a few steps back. He opened his eyes again, watching the ship take off into orbit. 

“Good luck.” He mumbled. “Not that I believe in luck….”


	15. Chapter 15

The flight into orbit was not as smooth as Shir had hoped. She needed to boost more power to the engines to be able to leave the atmosphere, due to the heavy gravitational pull of the planet. The ship was shaking and it was all in all not a very pleasant ride up – probably because of the damaged flight stabilizers. She would need to fix those before going into hyperspace. Somehow she still hoped she could get some spare parts and extra fuel from the Empire as compensation. It wasn’t such a long shot. They hired her to do this terrible job and they had enough resources to help. 

After the bumpy right into space, she finally arrived in orbit and thankfully was still in one piece. “I knew you could do it.” She chuckled and gently patted the controls of the ship. Then she focused her attention on the scanners and could detect a large object coming out of hyperspace. And there it was! The grey star destroyer appeared right in front of her. The light of her communication’s device was blinking; an incoming transmission. She hit the receive button. 

“We have you on our scanners. Please proceed to hangar bay one. You will be expected there.” This time it was a different imperial officer, probably a lower ranking one, who spoke to Shir via holo. 

“Will do.” Shir replied and ended the transmission. She steered her vessel alongside the huge star cruiser until she saw the blue-ish shields of the hangar. The Corellian pilot slowed down her ship, turned left and entered the hangar before pressing the button to extend the landing gear and bringing her down with the utmost care. She exhaled relieved after the engines shut off. Somehow this flight was far more exhausting than she thought it would be. Before getting up, she took a look through the window into the hangar. There were a few storm troopers guarding the entrance and another smaller group was walking towards her ship. Behind them were two officers. Her gaze went to the co-pilot seat next to her, where she had placed the metallic case with the asset. 

“Well, here we go.” She told herself and grabbed the case, before leaving the ship. The docking ramp extended. She walked down to enter the hangar and waited for the two officers to come to her. Two storm troopers were already stationed next to her ship for security, as was protocol. By now she had totally forgotten about her appearance; her face and armour were still covered in blood and oil from her multiple near death experiences aboard the Haxion Brood ship. Only when she noticed the shocked reactions of those two troopers she remembered. She could hear them whisper to each other and grinned.

“You should see the other guys.” She said to them. Too bad she couldn’t see the men’s faces – damn helmets. It certainly would’ve been very entertaining. But there was no time for theatrics now. She walked towards the two officers, with the case in her hand. Once they met, she also saw the shock in the officer’s expression. 

“Good day, gentleman.” She greeted them with a little nod. Then she presented the case. “As promised.” This was going far smoother than she had anticipated. She couldn’t see a big man in a black suit and cape anywhere – Maul’s description of Vader wasn’t exactly very elaborate. ‘You’ll know when you see him,’ he simply said. Guess she was in luck after all. 

However the officers hesitated in taking the case from her. Shir raised a brow. Had they suddenly decided to change their minds? Why weren’t they accepting what she had brought? If she had gone through all the trouble and nightmares for nothing, she was going to be so pissed. 

“Well? Don’t you want it?” She asked, a little impatient. 

“We were instructed to wait until the arrival of Lord Vader.” One of the two men said, clearly not being impressed with her attitude. Those last two words certainly ruined the mood for Shir. “He will inspect the asset personally.” So, he was coming here anyway, just as Maul had predicted. Now she was glad he stayed behind on the planet. Still though, knowing Vader was coming to pick up the asset made her feel a little nervous. They weren’t kidding about importance, if Vader had to personally come to inspect it. 

Not much later an imperial shuttle entered the hangar and landed right next to Shir’s half broken ship. Once she saw it, she turned around to watch it land. The boarding ramp extended down with a hiss and some steam. Then she could see someone getting off. A few storm troopers and a man in black – at least she thought it was a man. They came walking right towards her; the storm troopers on each side of the tall man. His face was covered with a mask and she could her the respirator hissing from a distance. His cape was dramatically whooshing behind him. A silver-black object was dangling from his belt and Shir only guessed that it was his lightsaber. His walk was firm and fast and it didn’t take him long to reach her. Now she knew what Maul meant with ‘you’ll know when you see him.’ 

“Lord Vader.” One of the officers greeted him, clicking his heels together. “This is the bounty hunter who-“ 

“Yes, I know, commander.” The distorted voice almost shocked Shir. If she hadn’t spent so much time around Maul and his threatening Sith aura, she would’ve gotten the creeps right away. The masked man now turned to her. “Have you brought what I asked for?” He asked her directly. 

“Y-yes, my lord.” Shir answered and presented him the case. Now she also noticed how tall this man was. He was at least twenty centimetres taller than her, making him well above two meters. Vader grabbed the case out of her hand and opened it to check its contents. Shir observed everything and focused on staying calm. It was save to say that she felt rather nervous about this. Vader took his time inspecting the contents of the case. Shir’s heart beat rose by just a little.

“Judging by your appearance you were confronted with… problems?” Vader asked while closing the case again. His question somehow threw Shir off. That’s not at all what she expected him to say. 

“Yes.” She eventually nodded. “The asset was aboard a ship owned by the Haxion brood.” She quickly explained. She didn’t want to over share too much about their mission and only tell him what was necessary. Too much information about their mission would give away the plan, but providing too little could make her seem suspicious.

“Commander Flite informed me you failed to report in as requested.” Vader’s tone was so strange. She couldn’t figure out if he was angry, disappointed or just curious. Still, she decided to be careful with her words. 

“Someone sabotaged the ship and jammed all outgoing communications. Therefore I was unable to contact you until I acquired the asset.” She paused for a second. “I wasn’t the only one looking for it.” The bounty hunter further explained, hoping Vader would be happy with her answer. For a moment there was silence and she could only hear the hissing of the respirator. 

“Is that why one of the items is missing?” Vader asked and looked at her directly, now sounding a bit more impatient. Shir’s heart started to beat just a little faster. From the corner of her eye she could see the worried looks on the two imperial officers. Stay calm!

“Yes, my lord.” She answered. “I found the case this way.” She nodded at the case while she said those words, but really focused on getting herself under control to not betray herself. If she believed it to be true, then he would not detect any lies within her. Vader fell quiet again, as if he was contemplating if her answer was good enough or not. 

“And the saboteur?” He eventually asked. 

“Killed.” Shir stated. “I blasted her myself.” 

“Were there any witnesses?” 

Shir shook her head. “No. The ship crashed, killing all on board.” Vader didn’t say anything further. During the silence that followed, she was still trying to be in control of her fear, but her nervousness still grew. Especially since she couldn’t see the other man’s expression. Was he not satisfied with her answers? Did he look through her? What was he thinking about? He must’ve figured out by now that someone else knew about the existence of this case and tried to steal it.

Eventually she decided to be a bit more assertive, trying to move the conversation along. It was nerve wrecking. “I’ve done what you asked. Further services from my side will cost more.” It may have sounded arrogant, but that is simply how the bounty hunting business worked. If he was not satisfied with her services, then she always had another trick up her sleeve – or in this case information – to get her out of this mess. At least she hoped so.

“Commander Flite.” Vader’s voice was sharp as he turned to his officer. 

“Yes, my lord?” The officer in question answered. 

“See to it that this bounty hunter gets her payment.” 

“As you wish, lord Vader.” The officer made a small bow. Vader didn’t say anything further, turned around and marched back to his shuttle with the case in his hand. Shir relaxed and almost sighed in relief. She and the officers watched Vader get back into his ship and take off. After the shuttle was out of sight, she turned to Flite with anticipation in her eyes. 

“This way.” The man made a gesture for her to follow him. Shir obliged and they walked out of the hangar and down the hallway. A small group of storm troopers crossed their path and she also spotted a few mouse droids driving across the hallway. She certainly had seen enough corridors for one day. 

“Commander… Flite, was it?” Shir eventually asked, trying to get his attention. The man turned his head towards her. “This job cost me a lot of resources.” That was an understatement, really. “My ship is heavily damaged and is in no state for deep space travel. If you would be so kind to at least refuel it and give me the necessary tools to fix it, I’ll be on my way.” 

The commander uttered a soft sigh. At first Shir got the impression he didn’t want to do as she asked, but her assumptions were wrong. The officer turned to his colleague. “Do as she asked.” The other man nodded and made his way back to the hangar. Shir smiled happily. But really, it’s the least they could do for sending her on such a terrible mission. Technically that was Vader, not Flite himself. But still.

Eventually the two of them reached a smaller room with a table in the middle and four chairs around it. On the wall was a monitor; it was switched off. While Shir waited in front of the table, Flite walked towards a desk in the back of the room and opened a drawer, taking out a big black case. Great, more cases! But this one wasn’t filled with toxic gas. The officer returned to Shir and opened the case to reveal it was stocked with credits. 

“This should do.” He commented. 

“Certainly.” Shir grinned happily and gladly accepted the case. Flite accompanied her back to her ship, where the imperial maintenance crew was busy refuelling and loading a few square containers with spare parts aboard. The other, nameless, officer from before met them in front of the ship. 

“The ship is fully refuelled, my men have even fixed the hyperdrive for you.” He said and Shir had almost gotten the impression the man was flirting with her, judging from that tone. Well that’s just another weird experience to add onto this mission. “All other necessary parts for repair are on board, like you asked.” 

“How kind.” Shir answered, almost sarcastically. She wasn’t sure herself if she was being sincere or sarcastic. But whatever... She just wanted to get this over with. A few moments of awkward silence followed. Eventually the two officers gave her each a nod as a good-bye and then left towards the exit of the hangar. With the case full of credits in her hand Shir got back aboard her ship and fired up the engines. She guided the ship out of the hangar and out into space. The imperial star destroyer turned around and disappeared into hyperspace. Now alone in orbit, Shir saw the green forest planet through the window of her cockpit.

She stared at the planet down below and then looked at the case full of credits on the co-pilot chair next to her. She decided to check if the hyperdrive really was fixed, in case the Empire had somehow sabotaged her for no reason. Over the years she had gotten a little paranoid when others repaired her ship. Once it occurred that she had indeed been sabotaged and it got her into a heap of trouble. 

But this time they weren’t lying. The systems told her, the hyperdrive was fully operational. She quickly searched for the nearest spaceports in the navigational system – which wasn’t operating that fantastically. But to her relief, one wasn’t too far from her current position. Once she got there, she could start actual repairs and go home. A longer hyperspace jump in the ship’s current condition could mean it falling apart.

Shir leaned back in her chair and stroked her chin, staring again at the planet below. She sighed softly. Her gaze fell back on the case filled to the brim with credits before she looked at the green planet once more. She eventually shook her head. Why was she hesitating?

“Don’t be an idiot, Shir.”


	16. Chapter 16

Maul was sitting cross-legged on the grass by the lake. He had his eyes closed and hands resting on his knees. Trying to sit still had always proved to be a challenge. If his body was finally at peace, his mind wasn’t. No matter how hard he tried to concentrate and calm himself, his thoughts distracted him. The dark side always surrounded his mind and never let it rest. What was he even trying to achieve in this moment? He didn’t know, but he had nothing else to do while he waited. All he could do was use the Force to shield his presence so that, if Vader was coming aboard the ship – of which Maul was certain – he had better chances of hiding. 

He was wondering how much longer it was going to take for Shir to get back – if she was coming back to pick him up of course. It had been an hour since she left now. Maul sighed and opened his eyes, looking at the blue lake in front of him. Then he looked up at the sky. Nothing. Maybe they picked her up at the other side of the planet. With a little groan he stood up. In the distance he saw smoke rising above the trees from the crash. A big ship like that would take a few days to completely burn out. Hopefully the fire wouldn’t spread to his position. 

What if Shir didn’t come back? How was he going to get off this planet, should that be the case? With his hands folded on his back he started to walk alongside the shore of the lake. It looked so peaceful. In general the planet was very peaceful. It was quiet; he could only hear the wind blowing through the trees. A few sounds of wild animals echoed through the forest. Maul had never felt so out of place and yet for a moment he wondered if he should just stay here. He continued to walk along the shore and watched the ripples in the water. 

Maybe he didn’t want Shir to come back. Maybe he should just remain here on this peaceful planet and try to come to terms with everything that had happened. All this loss. All this need for revenge. What was it good for these days? His hatred towards the Jedi was of no use anymore – they had all been killed. There were no Jedi left to destroy. The only thing that was driving him forward was his hatred towards his former master and his new apprentice. It still irked him that he couldn’t stop Sidious’ plan and take his precious new apprentice from him. That would have been so satisfying. But everything had to turn out different. At least he managed to secure his power as leader of Crimson Dawn and the shadow collective. 

But as he was standing there, on the shore of that beautiful and peaceful lake on this uninhabited planet, he wondered… what was the purpose of it all? Why was he doing this? Questioning his own actions gave him a headache. It was so strong he had to hold his head for a second. This wasn’t the best timing for a crisis. The power he possessed, as leader of this crime syndicate was all he had left and nothing was going to take it away from him. And yet, he spent his time with this bounty hunter, doing a job for the Empire, which he swore to sabotage as much as he could. It was all backwards. Why was he doing this?

Maul stopped walking and stared at the horizon in front of him – nothing but trees. From behind him the wind carried the smell of burnt wood and metal along with some black smoke. The actual fire was still too far to reach him, but the smell was a reminder that, should Shir not return, he needed a back-up plan. 

The zabrak turned to the side and stared into the water to see his reflection. Somehow seeing himself unsettled him. It was as if he was suddenly confronted with all his failures. He failed to kill Kenobi and had to pay the price. He failed to defeat Sidious and his brother had to pay the price. He failed to execute his mother’s plan and she had to pay the price. For a moment he felt sadness as he remembered their loss. But quickly anger arose in him. Untamed anger. Maul picked up a rock from the shore and with a loud scream he threw it as far as he could into the lake. 

Suddenly he heard something behind him. A humming noise and it was getting closer rapidly fast. Maul turned around to see a ship flying towards him. The sunlight blinded his eyes, so he couldn’t recognize it at first. But it slowed down and landed on a patch of grass in front of him. Finally, he recognized the badly damaged ship as Shir’s vessel. So she decided to come back after all. Guess he didn’t need the back up plan after all. And with her arrival the doubts about his own actions and purpose vanished. 

“You thought I wasn’t coming back, did you?” He heard Shir’s voice over the comm-link. 

“What if I liked it here?” He replied with a smirk. 

“Yeah, sure.” Shir laughed, sounding a little weird over the comm-link. Maul made his way to the ship just as the boarding ramp extended. He saw Shir walking down and they met at the bottom of it. The bounty hunter crossed her arms and had a satisfied grin on her face.

“I assume everything went according to plan, judging by the fact that you’re alive.” Maul commented, gesturing at her. “You look terrible.”

“Very flattering, Maul.” She rolled her eyes and chuckled. “But yes, everything went just fine. And they weren’t kidding about a handsome reward. It’s a shit ton of money.” She pointed at the ship behind her, meaning the case she left in the cockpit. “You were right, Vader did show up. Apparently the contents of that case were that important that he took the time to inspect it himself.” 

“I imagine he didn’t want to take any chances. No doubt his master would hold him responsible for any mistakes.” He paused for a moment. “Did he believe you?” Maul’s look was almost penetrating. 

“Uh… I think so? It was hard to tell. Talking to him is like talking to a brick wall.” Shir added a little snort to her last comment to ease up the conversation, but Maul wasn’t really in the mood for a joke. This was serious to him. Without another word he walked up the ramp and into the ship. Shir followed him. 

“So, we’re done here, right?” She wasn’t sure why she asked _him_. She was the bounty hunter and technically in charge of this mission. Maul stopped in his tracks to turn and look at her. 

“You’re the bounty hunter.” He gestured at her. “You got your payment, doesn’t that mean you finished the job?” It was as if he could read her thoughts. And now she remembered how he forced herself into that woman’s mind. It sent shivers down her spine.

“Yeah…” She replied. “I do have to repair those flight stabilizers. I doubt she can take another bumpy ride into space, no doubt trying to go into hyperspace without them. And after having survived everything until now, I don’t wanna end up being blown into pieces in my own damn ship.”

“Fair enough.” Maul only said and wanted to walk into the cockpit, since he can’t be of much help anyway. But he stopped and turned around again. “I thought the hyperdrive was damaged?”

“Huh?” Shir had already put on her goggles and was on her way to the engine room. “Oh yeah. I asked those two officers if they could give me some repair parts. Turns out they fixed my hyperdrive as well.” She shrugged and climbed down into the engine room. Afterwards she’d have to check the outside again. 

Maul hesitated for a moment. Somehow that sounded highly suspicious. Instead of going to the cockpit he decided to leave the ship again to inspect it further. At least this time it wasn’t sunken half into the ground, but was actually standing on its landing gear, making it far easier to inspect all corners of it. 

“What are you looking for?” Shir asked after she had also come outside. Maul didn’t answer her. He suddenly stopped walking and ripped something off of the metal of the outer shell. 

“This.” He held up a tracking beacon, but didn’t destroy it. He walked up to her, until he stood in front of the human. Shir stared at it and felt a little nervous again. Had they seen through her after all?

“Vader had no time to instruct his men to track my ship. I was there for the entire time he was on board.” Shir explained a little concerned. “You think they suspect us of treachery?” 

Maul shook his head. “It seems it’s standard procedure for the Empire to track people’s ships. Even bounty hunters, who completed a job for them.” He looked at the device in his hands and then at Shir. “Let’s get off this planet.” Without further ado he walked aboard the ship. 

“Yeah as soon as I fix those stabilizers!” Shir yelled after him, but Maul didn’t respond. “Useless Sith.” She muttered and got to work. Luckily she was a lot faster with the right tools than she thought and returned only fifteen minutes later to the ship. She found the zabrak sitting in the cockpit with one leg pulled up, being lost in thought. 

“Thanks for the help.” The sarcasm in her voice couldn’t be missed. But she noticed, Maul was still holding that beacon in his hand. “What are you going to do with it? Shouldn’t we destroy it?” Shir asked as she sat down in her chair. 

“No.” Maul replied, putting his leg down again – when would this man learn how to sit properly? “I think it would be a better idea to attach it to another ship. That way they are still receiving a signal. We still don’t know, why they planted it in the first place.”

“Standard procedure you said. Now it suddenly has a bigger purpose?” She shook her head before activating the engines. “Well, I have to go to a nearby spaceport for extensive repairs anyway.” The ship took off and she commandeered it back up into space. Once in orbit, she entered the coordinates for the spaceport, which she had selected before picking up the zabrak. 

Maul meanwhile leaned back in his chair, stroking his chin while still looking out of the window. He of course only hoped it was standard procedure. Maybe Vader managed to contact his men while Shir wasn’t paying attention. What if he didn’t believe her and they were now after them?

“Did you tell Vader that woman was working for the rebellion?” Maul eventually asked, turning to Shir. 

“No.” She said without looking at him. “I didn’t think that was necessary nor was it a good timing. But I did tell him there was another hunter looking for it. He must’ve figured out that someone else besides him knows the effects of that gas or at least about its existence. I also told him I found the case in the state it is in.” 

“Well…” Maul paused before grabbing the test tube with the blue liquid from his robe to look at it. “It will take them some time to discover the antidote is missing and the test tube is actually filled with water.” He grinned. “And when they do, they will track it back to the rebel alliance.” 

It had been a risky plan to fill another test tube with the blue water of the lake and thereby fooling Vader. But it worked! It took Maul long enough to recognize the resemblance with the lake water and the antidote. On top of everything, he guessed that Vader himself didn’t know what the gas and the antidote looked like – maybe he just knew that there was one. Luck might have just saved them. But then again… he didn’t believe in luck, did he?

“What makes you so certain they will?” Shir now stopped her button pushing and looked at him. 

“Because we’re going to sell it to them. I’m positive they’re very interested in the contents of this flask. Especially after hearing that the person they hired failed to acquire it.” Maul explained and tucked the fragile test tube into his pocket. “That is why I kept the tracking beacon functioning. It should lead them right to the rebels.” He grinned satisfied. Maybe he could sabotage Sidious’ plans after all. 

“And without me having the antidote, there’s no need for the Empire to hunt me down.” Shir chuckled. It was a theory, but it was good enough. “I must say, I’m quite impressed.” She said before pulling the lever to enter hyperspace. Time to fix up the ship and go home.


End file.
